RIYADH, 14 May 2004 — Saudi stocks continued their rally in record volumes in the week to Thursday to close for the first time above 6,000 points, buoyed by rising oil prices and optimism over company earnings.

The all-share index of the largest Arab bourse closed at 6,016.50 points, up 3.7 percent from last week’s 5,802.91 points. It is up 35.6 percent this year after rising 76 percent in 2003.

Strong oil revenues have been a boon for the economy of the world’s biggest crude exporter, helping corporate earnings and boosting share liquidity in a year-long rally.

Some analysts cautioned that the rise of certain non blue-chips was speculative and said a correction was likely for these stocks in coming weeks.

“BFA believe that the current market overvaluation signals a red alert for the coming weeks making it hard to forecast the future moves of speculative stocks,” Bakheet Financial Advisors said in a report. “Most of the blue chip stocks having reasonable financial ratios will hold their levels,” BFA said.

Weekly turnover rose to a new high of SR66.95 billion ($17.85 billion), up from last week’s SR55.2 billion, itself a record at the time.

Saudi Electricity Co., the most active stock with 21.6 percent of turnover, climbed 19.4 percent to SR158.50, while market heavyweight Saudi Telecom edged up 0.4 percent to SR547.25.

Advancers outnumbered decliners 54-16, while one share was unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Al-Quds index of the Palestinians ended the week down a massive 6.64 percent, falling to 173.11 points.

On Egypt’s stock market, the HFI index weakened 4.6 percent to 15,252.87 points, amid falls in the tourism, pharmaceutical and petrochemical sectors.

On the positive side, the stock market in Jordan, which from Saturday is to host a World Economic Forum, recorded the strongest growth, with the ASE rising yesterday to 2,749.81 points, an increase of 2.6 percent over the previous week.

In Bahrain, the BSE index climbed 1.58 percent to close the week on 2.445.58 points. The MSM in Oman closed at 308.01 points, up 1.38 percent.

Despite high oil prices, the KSE index in Kuwait shed 1.2 percent in the week to Wednesday, reacting to regional security fears and local political developments as well as strong correction pressures. It slipped below the 5,000-point psychological barrier to finish the week at 4,956.40 points, down from last week’s closing of 5,014.80 points.

The Tehran bourse slipped 0.7 percent, with the TEPIX closing Wednesday on 11,652.31 points, from last week’s 11,571.77.

In the United Arab Emirates, the NBAD index was slightly down, slipping 0.4 percent to close on 4,942.57 points, while the CQB in Qatar saw a similar trend, down 0.34 percent to 1,034.81 points. The Beirut bourse was stable, with the BSI index closing on 557.98 points, barely changed from the past week’s 557.50 points.