CAIRO, Jan. 19 (Aswat Masriya) – Egypt’s bourse continued to rise on Tuesday, for the second day in a row, after incurring sharp declines for seven consecutive sessions.

The benchmark index EGX30 ended the trading session with an increase by 2.6 per cent, to reach 6,097 points while the small and middle enterprises index EGX 70 surged by 3.7 per cent and the broader EGX 100 rose by 2.3 per cent.

The surge in the market came after the presidency announced the government’s intention to offer shares of governmental banks and companies in the Egyptian market, for the first time since 2005.

Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer told Reuters on Tuesday that the government is considering offering stock market shares of two banks in the bourse to increase their capital. The National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr are not included.

The government owns four commercial banks which the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, Banque du Caire and the United Bank of Egypt in addition to 50 per cent of the Arab African Bank and about 20 per cent of Bank of Alexandria’s shares.

Mohab Agina, the head of the technical analysis department at Beltone Financial, attributed the rise in stock indices to several positive news that affected the market, notably the Chinese market’s rise by 3.22 per cent.

Most of the Asian and European markets hiked as Shanghai stock exchange surged after China registered high records in an initial demand for oil in 2015, an increase by 2.5 per cent compared to 2014.

Arab bourses rallied as well where Kuwait's main index closed at increase by 0.59 per cent after a 10-day decline. Similarly, Saudi Arabia's bourse concluded today's session with an increase by 4 per cent.