The main EGX-30 index closed up 5.28 percent to 5,212.08, with the market functioning for only three hours a day instead of four in a bid to stabilise the index.

The market opened for the first time on Wednesday since the outbreak of nationwide protests that eventually toppled president Hosni Mubarak.

The index which had been widely expected to fall on resumption, closed down 8.92 percent on Wednesday, after officials suspended trading for half an hour in line with emergency regulations.

A resumption of trading had been postponed five times since closing two days into the uprising, with economic confidence also hit by sweeping corruption investigations.