Egyptian stocks clawed back some of their recent losses to finish in the green in the week's second trading session as the apparent collapse of Gaddafi's rule over Libya sparked renewed interest from cautious foreign investors.

The EGX30 main index closed up 1.06 per cent at 4,642 points, with non-Arab buyers being responsible for 16 per cent of total turnover.

“It's possible the fall of Gaddafi and the potential stability this could bring for oil prices pushed foreigners into buying,” says Ashraf Abdel Aziz, head of institutions sales at Arabia Online Securities. 

World markets -- whose performances the Egyptian exchange has been mirroring -- also gained on news that Libya's six-month civil war may be coming to an end.

However Abdel Aziz pointed out the market had already begun to rebound in the final minutes of Sunday's session in what he called a "normal recovery of the indices" after relatively heavy losses.

On Monday, foreigners and Arabs were net-buyers of shares worth LE 12.3m and LE6.5m respectively. Egyptians were net-sellers to the tune of LE 19mn.

From the 176 listed stocks, 133 gained and 20 declined in a session that saw total trade volume of LE342.6m.

Leading the upswing was Pioneers Holding, which saw almost a quarter of the day's trade and finished 5.29 per cent up.

“The investment bank witnessed significant interest amounting to LE86.3m -- around 22 per cent of today’s market turnover,” said Nael Sedky, equity trader at Naeem Brokerage.

Troubled mobile services provider Mobinil returned to the green, gaining one per cent -- as performance mirrored by its partial-owner Orascom Telecom, which saw a 3 per cent upswing.

The majority of high-caps followed suit, CIB climbing 3.4 per cent and Ezz Steel, up 0.5 per cent.

“CIB was one of the best blue-chip performers in Monday’s session due to foreign purchases,” Abdel Aziz told Ahram Online.

Prominent real estate shares did relatively well too, with high-caps SODIC and TMG edging up just under 1 per cent apiece.

Not everyone fared so well. Orascom Construction (OCI) dented the EGX30's gains by finising 1.1 per cent in the red. Egypt's second-largest developer Palm Hills and private equity firm Citadel Capital recorded losses of 0.5 and 1.6 per cent respectively.

“OCI’s investors are worried about government plans to remove energy subsidies so we could see the same flat performances in the coming sessions,” says Abdel-Aziz

The broader EGX70, which includes smaller and speculative stocks, also gained 2.7 per cent.