CAIRO: The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) rallied this week, after Italy’s energy company Eni SpA announced Sunday it has discovered a “supergiant” natural gas field in the deep water of Egypt’s Mediterranean.
Eni described “Zohr” discovery as the “largest- ever” found in the Mediterranean Sea, with a potential 30 trillion cubic feet of gas over an area of 100 square kilometers.
The market was also pushed by news that Egypt’s long-awaited parliamentary elections will take place in October and November.
Market capitalization gained around 12.7 billion EGP ($1.6 billion,) to hit 450.4 billion EGP, compared to 437.7 billion EGP last week.
The benchmark index EGX30 jumped three percent to end the week at 7,295 points, up from 7,079 points a week earlier.
Also, the small and mid-cap index EGX70 inched up two percent to close the week at 394.8 points, compared to 387 points in the previous week.
The broader index EGX100 also edged up 2.59 percent to close at 846 points, up from 803.2 points.
Total turnover amounted to 6.1 billion EGP, 998 million securities traded over 106,000 transactions, compared to 4.9 billion EGP and 1.308 billion securities traded over 111,000 transactions a week earlier.