CAIRO, 5 December 2003 — Middle East stock markets posted robust gains in the trading week to Thursday, with bourses in the Gulf leading the way and Saudi Arabia’s market posting a stellar weekly rise of 4.1 percent, traders said. The Saudi TASI index, the biggest in the Arab world by market capitalization, closed yesterday at 4,372.02 points, up 4.1 percent from its closing level on Nov. 20.
The Saudi bourse and other markets in the region had been closed for several days in the previous week due to the holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
According to the Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors, the shares of 67 companies - mainly services and electricity firms - were up on the week, while the stocks of only one company fell and another firm’s shares were unchanged. The analysts added that the TASI index has soared by 73.6 percent since the start of the year.
Meanwhile the Kuwaiti KSE index closed up 2.1 percent from last week, at 4,589.70 points, a new record.
In Bahrain, the BSE index closed at 2,330.85 points, up 1.6 percent from the previous week.