CAIRO, 4 October 2003 — The stock market in Saudi Arabia bounced back after two straight weeks of decline while other bourses in the Middle East also registered rises in the last week.
The Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI) closed Thursday at 4,355.18 points, compared to 4,280.66 points last week, or an increase of 1.7 percent.
It ended a decline that began three weeks ago amid what analysts described as an overheated market due to speculative trading. Saudi Arabia has the largest capitalization of any Arab stock market with more than $142 billion, but operates only on an interbank basis. In Kuwait, the second Arab market in terms of capitalization, the KSA index closed Wednesday at 4,328.8 points, compared to 4,270.7 points last week, up 1.4 percent. The index is now up 82.2 percent on its 2002 closing. It set a new record high of 4,359.5 points at its close on Tuesday.
The Kuwaiti bourse has been rising steadily since the start of the year but its increase picked up steam after the overthrow of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in April.
The availability of abundant cash, low interest rates, coupled with strong oil prices that boosted public revenues, have had a major positive impact on the market. The stock market in Qatar closed down 2.5 percent, the CBQ index closing at 654.03 points, compared to 670.78 points last week. In Oman, the MSM index remained virtually unchanged, closing at 257.3 points, compared to 257.4 points last week.
In the United Arab Emirates, the NBAD index finished the week at 4,355.60 points, slightly up from last week’s 4,3334.74 points. In Bahrain, the BSE index closed at 2,190.45 points, compared to 2,134.84 points last week, up 2.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian stock market in Nablus registered a decline of 1.7 percent, with the Al-Quds index closing at 169.96 points, compared to 172.87 points last Thursday. In Jordan, the ASE index closed at 239.05 points, up from 236.16 points last Thursday.
The Egyptian CASE-30 index closed at 941.43 points, up 0.5 percent compared to last week’s 936.45 points. In Lebanon, the Blom Stock Index closed Thursday at 435.23 points, compared to 434.33 points last week.
In Tehran, the stock market closed Wednesday at 8,824.98 points, down 2.4 percent from 9,044.32 points last week. The TSE-50 blue chip index also declined, closing at 620.80 points, compared to 643.47 points last week.