JEDDAH, 24 September 2005 — Saudi stocks continued their bullish trend last week, with the Tadawul All Share Price Index (TASI) closing at an all-time high of 15,050.43 points, up 92.33 points or 0.62 percent from previous week’s close at 14,958.10 points.
The TASI is currently 83.4 percent higher than the year’s start, the Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said in their weekly report.
The BFA expected the performance of blue chip firms to remain “the major factor determining the market’s trend ahead of announcing Q3 2005 financial results”. They also expected speculative small cap stocks to retreat sharply following the gains they scored over the past weeks because such gains were “not based on investment fundamentals”.
Eastern Agriculture shares dominated the trading last week as its shares gained 26.65 percent in a week at SR259, followed by National Agriculture Marketing Co. by 26.48 percent at SR277, Saudi Industrial Services Co. by 23.71 percent at SR281.75, Saudi Industrial Development Co. by 21.42 percent at SR265 and Aseer Trading, Tourism and Manufacturing Co. by 19.30 percent at SR779.
Saudi Advanced Industries Co. shares dropped by 5.47 percent in week to close at SR713, followed by Al Mawashi Al Mukairish United Co. by 4.71 percent at SR91 and Saudi Electricity Co. by 4.34 percent at SR137.75.
According to the Tadawul information, value of 77 companies traded last week reached SR112 billion.
The Saudi stock market is closed today to mark the National Day.
In Kuwait, the KSE all-share price index closed week at 10,205 points. The benchmark price of the Kuwaiti bourse gained 3.9 per cent over the past couple of weeks.
The United Arab Emirates stocks also scored fresh gains this week. The all-share price index of Abu Dhabi stock exchange climbed 7.2 percent, closing at 5,674.8 points, while Dubai’s index gained 0.4 percent, closing week at 1,175.1 points.
Stock markets in the GCC countries are expected to continue their upward march as a result of liquidity provided by skyrocketing oil prices. According to a report carried by Asharq Al-Awsat, total value of GCC stock markets doubled to reach $1.04 trillion within a year. By the end of 2004, the GCC market was estimated at $526.3 billion.
Kuwaiti economist Aamir Al-Tamimi said the GCC bourse must be more organized and transparent. “GCC markets are poised to continue their growth, especially because of growing liquidity supplied by increasing oil prices,” he added. Tamimi said growing government spending as well as foreign and domestic investments would further strengthen the markets.
Arab stock markets headed to a new round of gains, thanks to widespread expectations of growing third quarter profits and the adamantly soaring oil prices that give rise to huge surplus petrodollars and a surge in public spending, financial analysts said yesterday.
“I believe bourses in Jordan and regional countries are heading to new highs, buoyed by third quarter results that are due to come out at the start of October and the presence of high level of liquidity,” Amer Muasher, head of brokerage at the Jordan National Bank, told Arab News. The ASE all-share price index edged lower last week, to close on Thursday at 8,115 points down from 8,122 points last week. However, the market’s weekly turnover grew by 5 percent, to 587 million dinars ($829 million) from 559 million dinars ($789 million), the report said.
— With input from Abdul Jalil Mustafa