Egypt's main indexes ended sharply higher on Sunday, buoyed by sharp increases in heavyweight stocks after the U.S. government announced a $700 billion bailout plan for Wall Street. The benchmark CASE 30 index gained 6.15 percent to 7,500.95 points, registering its biggest one-day gain since March 2006, after hitting an intra-day high of 7,658.72 points. The Hermes index gained 5 percent and the broader CIBC index added 4.35 percent. “This is a reflection of what happened on Friday after the good news coming out of the US,” said Mohamed Ebeid of EFG-Hermes Securities Brokerage. Traders said that trade had been briefly suspended in heavyweights EFG-Hermes, Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) , Orascom Telecom (OT) and Commercial International Bank after they gained in excess of 10 percent. The board of OCI approved the buyback of up to 5 percent of outstanding stock, the company said. It also said it would buy 2.15 million shares in the next month. Shares in OCI, Egypt's largest builder by market value, ended 4.82 percent higher at 326.11 pounds.
