CAIRO, May 19 (Aswat Masriya) - Egypt's stock market rose on Tuesday with the support of purchases made by Arab institutions and investment funds, one day after Egypt announced a two-year lift on the capital gains tax.      

After over two and a half hours of trading, the benchmark index EGX 30 rose by 1.47 percent, the broader EGX 70 climbed by 1.86 percent and EGX 100 showed an increase by 1.75 percent. 

At the end of trading in the afternoon, the benchmark index closed at a 0.9 percent increase. Similarly EGX 70 inched up by 0.97 percent and EGX 100 had risen the most, making a 1.09 percent climb.

This hike in the Egyptian markets comes for the second day in a row as investors show signs of relief with the Egyptian government's decision on Monday to suspend the capital gains tax, which was set at 10 percent. 

The purpose of the suspension is to preserve the competitiveness of Egypt's financial market and investments pumped into it, cabinet spokesman Hossam Qawish had said in a statement. 

At the end of trading yesterday, the main index, EGX 30 closed at 6.5 percent, a significant rise compared to the index's performance earlier this month.

Taxes on dividends will continue to be applied, with the tax being collected only once and no tax will be collected on the net revenue.

Formerly, Egypt's stock market was free of any taxation on profits. However, last July, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb introduced taxes on dividends and capital gains, worth 10 percent each. 

The new taxes came among a string of austerity measures the government adopted in July, including, reducing petroleum subsidies which hiked fuel prices by up to 78 percent.