JEDDAH, 11 June 2005 — The Arab world’s largest stock markets hit all-time record highs last week and seemed poised for fresh gains in the coming weeks, as they drew momentum from “better-than-expected” semi-annual results and surging oil prices, Analysts said yesterday.

Saudi stocks displayed strong performance last week, with the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI), climbing 4 percent and closing at 12,989.26 points, showing a slight fall of 7.78 points or 0.06 percent on Thursday, after crashing the 13,000-point psychological barrier when it hit a record high of 13,057 points on Wednesday.

Out of 75 stocks traded, share prices of 38 companies went up when 32.1 million shares worth SR8.9 billion changed hands, while 33 companies showed fall in prices.

Qassim Agricultural Company, whose prices dropped 0.17 percent to SR144.50, dominated the market with exchange of 5.3 million shares.

TASI is currently 58.3 percent higher than year’s start, according to the Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA).

The Saudi stock exchange received backing from 8.5 percent gain scored by the Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), against investors’ expectation of solid Q2 profits following the firm’s conclusion of an agreement with the new mobile operator, Mobily.

The market also received support from an announcement by the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) that it was establishing a subsidiary, Yansab, with a multi-billion dollar paid-up capital at the Yanbu Industrial City

Prices went up in the electricity, agriculture, industry and insurance sectors while went down in banking, cement, services and telecom sectors.

The industrial sector gained 93.97 points or 0.33 percent, reaching the third place in the market, with exchange of 7.7 million shares in 35,000 deals valued at SR3.6 billion. Of the total 27 industrial firms, prices of 19 went up while that of seven went down. The sector closed at 28,0780.25 points. The electricity sector rose by 0.59 percent with 15.31 points to close at 2,617.45 points. The banking sector index closed at 31,930.00, down 58.02 points and cement sector index closed 58.60 points lower at 8,569.17.

The BFA expected investors “to remain in a cautious mood ahead of the Q2 results, which will determine the market trend in the coming weeks”.

“We believe that this week’s gains set the stage for a new round of bullish performance in the coming weeks, with minor corrections expected from time to time,” Amer Muasher, head of brokerage at the Amman-based Jordan National Bank, told Arab News.

“Markets are expected to draw fresh momentum from better-than-expected second quarter results, which started to leak this week, as well as surplus petrodollars emanating from the adamantly surging oil prices,” he said.

The all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange gained 2.65 percent, crashing the 7,000-point psychological barrier and closing week on Thursday at 7,024 points, according to the ASE weekly report.

The report also showed a 37 percent growth in the volume of transactions, to 450 million dinars ($636 million) from 328 million dinars ($463 million) last week.

“We are upbeat over the market’s performance in the coming weeks, taking into account what robust second quarter results and the large volume of liquidity flooding into the market from both local and foreign sources, mainly from Gulf states,” Muasher said.

Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index also climbed 5.5 percent last week, to close week at 8,841.10 points from 8,382.5 points previous week. Kuwaiti stocks apparently drew strong support from the declaration by the Public Warehousing Co. (PWC) that it had concluded a deal amounting to $14 billion over five years with the US Defense Department, an Amman-based analyst said.

In the United Arab Emirates, the stock exchanges of Abu Dhabi and Dubai went up 1.6 percent and 7.9 percent this week, to close at 5,704 points and 905.8 points respectively.

Egyptian shares also scored fresh gains buoyed by news that the Hermes Group had won contracts amounting to more than $800 million in the United Arab Emirates and that the government was enacting a new legislation that cut corporate and income taxes, dealers said.

The Hermes all-share price index gained 4.24 percent, closing week on Thursday at 37,586.49 points.

— Additional input from Abdul Jalil Mustafa