JEDDAH/AMMAN, 24 March 2007 — The Saudi stock market dropped slightly last week. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) shed 0.49 percent last week, closing at 8,560.82 points down from 8,603.10 points in the previous week. The TASI is currently 7.9 percent higher than the year’s start.

The market closed on Tuesday with the TASI rising 2 percent over the previous week, but it plummeted in the last couple of hours on Wednesday, the last day of the trading week.

Mahmoud Musharika, a market analyst, said investors were awaiting first quarter results of companies listed on the bourse to know their effect on share prices. He attributed this cautious approach by dealers to a fall in the index last Wednesday, losing over 222 points.

“This sudden correction affected the investors’ behavior negatively, causing blue chip shares to plunge,” the Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said in its weekly report.

The BFA report cautioned against the negative impact on the market of speculative shares trading. “This poses the biggest threat to the market through increasing investors’ anxiety including blue chip shareholders,” the report said.

However, the stock market turnover rose slightly to SR109.29 billion compared to SR105.57 billion in previous week.

Hail Agriculture was top gainer last week as its shares jumped 31.82 percent to SR58.

Shares of Arab National Bank plunged 28.54 percent to SR77 last week, Saudi Hollandi Bank by 15.19 percent to SR60 and Eastern Cement by 9.88 percent to SR75.25.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) shares also fell slightly to SR125 last week.

In the telecom sector, shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) declined by 3.29 percent to SR73.50 but shares of Etihad Etisalat rose by 6.44 percent to SR62.

Arab stock markets reflected mixed performance last week, but analysts said yesterday they expected regional bourses to be “stable” in general for the coming couple of weeks as cautious investors prefer to avoid new losses due to fresh profit taking sell-offs. “I believe Arab stock markets will be stable in the coming few weeks but without tangible progress, mainly due to lack of liquidity as investors prefer to give up their positions to avert fresh losses,” Nizar Taher, head of trading at the Jordan Al-Ahli Bank told Arab News.

“I think the third quarter results will be the key moving factor of regional stock markets in the next couple of weeks along with the volume of liquidity,” he said.

Taher and other analysts said they were inclined to exclude any key impact on markets for geopolitics, including the row over the Iran nuclear program.

Jordanian shares received backing from foreign buying particularly Gulf investment funds which focused on the Arab Bank and other leading banks, Taher said.

The all-share price index of the Amman stock Exchange gained 1.86 percent last week, closing at 6,343 points compared with previous week’s close at 6,186 points, according to the ASE weekly report.

“We believe that the Arab Bank shareholders meeting on March 30 will have a positive impact on the market, particularly if it decides to distribute bonus shares,” Taher said.

Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 3.6 percent last week, closing at 10,303 points up from 10,058 points in previous week week.

Kuwait’s benchmark price climbed by 10.36 percent since the beginning of the year, according to the weekly report of the Bayan Investment Co.

It put the total capitalization of firms listed in the Kuwaiti bourse at 45.38 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($162 billion).

The United Arab Emirates stocks plunged dramatically last week amid diminishing investors’ confidence and increasing concerns as to the future prospects of the market, analysts said.

The unified all-share price index of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses lost 3.2 percent, closing at 3,882 points, down from 4,012 points last week.

The GulfBase GCC index also rose slightly last week to 5,190.86 points.