JEDDAH, 22 October 2005 — The Saudi stock market moved up and down last week reflecting the third quarter results of leading firms such as the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and the Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC), which reported less-than-expected profits in the first three quarters of the year,

The Tadawul All Shares Index (TASI) dropped by 99.04 points or 0.66 percent last week, closing at 14,952.05 points compared with previous week’s close at 15,051.09 points.

TASI is currently 82.2 percent higher than the year’s start.

The Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) described as an “unacceptable level” of the third quarter results of Saudi leading firms, hinting that TASI could go down in the coming weeks.

“After all blue-chips have announced their results for Q3 2005, it becomes clear that their earnings’ grown rate for the first nine months of the year have declined noticeably compared with the same period in 2004,” the report said.

Shares of Aseer Trading, Tourism & Manufacturing Co. jumped by 18.97 percent in a week to close at SR928, followed by the Saudi British Bank (SABB), by 15.54 percent at SR1,470 as its board of directors has decided to recommend an increase in its capital to SR3.75 billion and issue one bonus share for each two shares held, Saudi Fisheries Co. by 13.94 percent at SR353.50, Almarai Co. by 13.31 percent at SR915 and Bank AlJazira by 12.98 percent at SR1,288.

Saudi Livestock shares plunged by 29.61 percent in a week to close at SR77.25 and SABIC by 7.45 percent at SR1,528 despite 54 percent increase in its nine-month net profit.

Total value of the shares traded last week reached SR83.75 billion.

Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 3.3 percent last week, closing at 10,948 points, up from 10,599 points previous week.

Dealers attributed the strong performance of Kuwaiti shares last week to the marked increase in profits scored by the banking and investment sectors in the first nine months of the year.

In the United Arab Emirates, the benchmark prices of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses gained an average of 2.8 percent, buoyed by a conviction on the part of investors that prices had gone down substantially and it is “high time for stocks to go up”, an Amman-based analyst said.

The all-share price indexes of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges gained 5.3 percent and 1.2 percent, closing respectively at 1,202 points and 5,511 points.

Meanwhile, Arab stocks stand to gain from third quarter results, but markets are expected to remain “lackluster” until the end of the fasting month of Ramadan that coincides with the first week of November, analysts said yesterday. “I believe markets will remain lackluster in the coming two weeks until the end of Ramadan, which is to blame for the low turnover and price fluctuations,” Wajdi Makhamreh, investment manager and head of brokerage at the Jordan Investment & Finance Bank, told Arab News.

“However, each Arab stock market has its own peculiar factors that function to bring about corrections when prices are exaggerated,” he said.

The all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange shed 1.12 percent last week, to close at 7,626 points down from 7,712 points previous week, according to the ASE weekly report.

The volume of transactions also retreated by 15 percent last week, to 246 million dinars ($347 million) from 289 million dinars ($408 million), the report said.

“I believe fasting and continued speculation is to blame for this retreat which took place against expectations, given the better-than-expected Q3 profits of Jordanian blue chip firms,” Makhamreh said.

“With the presence of a large number of speculators who lack knowledge of the market’s mechanism, I think the market will calm and trading thin,” he added.

— With input from Abdul Jalil Mustafa