JEDDAH/AMMAN, 7 April 2007 — Saudi shares suffered for the third week in a row due to a plunge of blue chips. The decline led by the banking sector and the Saudi Telecom Co.

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) of the Saudi stock exchange shed 2.83 percent last week closing at 7,666.62 points, down from 7,889.74 points from the previous week.

The TASI, which lost 13 percent over the past three weeks, is currently 3.36 percent lower that the year’s start.

The Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors’ weekly report attributed the continued decline of the benchmark price to “lack of vision on the part of a large number of investors” because they feared further declines of stock prices on one hand and for focusing on speculative shares on the other.

The report expected investors to monitor the first quarter results of listed firms before revaluating their portfolios.

The BFA warned that speculative stocks “will remain unpredictable” due to the random trading behavior of investors involved in this type of activity.

In the banking sector, shares of Banque Saudi Fransi dropped by 11.25 percent to SR69 last week, Arab National Bank by 8.61 percent to SR69 and Bank Albilad by 7.84 percent to SR35.25.

Agriculture companies dominated trading last week as shares of Jouff Agriculture soared 20.56 percent, Tabuk Agriculture 20.28 percent and Hail Agriculture 11.94 percent.

In the industrial sectors, National Gypsum Co. shares plunged 30.53 percent to SR78.50 last week and Saudi Arabia Refineries Co. (SARCO) by 28.67 percent to SR278.

In the services sector, shares of Arriyadh Development Co. dropped 21.88 percent to SR18.75, Saudi Real Estate Co. by 20.96 percent to SR33 and Saudi Hotels and Resort Areas Co. by 14.72 percent to SR34.75.

Shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) declined 1.91 percent last week to SR64.25 while shares of Etihad Etisalat rose 7.91 percent to SR58.

The stock market turnover also continued to decline last week as over SR65 billion worth of shares changed hands compared to SR80.33 billion in the previous week. Arab stock markets reacted positively on Thursday to Iran’s release of the detained British sailors, financial analysts said yesterday.

“The defusing of the British sailors crisis is expected to lessen tension that dominated the Gulf region over the past months and, consequently, to have a positive impact on regional stock markets,” Amman-based analyst Wajdi Makhamreh told Arab News.

“However, the volume of liquidity and corporate earnings in the first quarter of the year will remain the driving force of markets,” he said.

Almost all Arab bourses open for trading on Thursday rebounded or extended gains, particularly the United Arab Emirates stock markets of Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE).

“Despite the liquidity shortage suffered by the market at present, we believe the rebound will continue for a few days next week before investors resort to profit-taking tactics,” Makhamreh said.

Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 0.21 percent last week, closing at 10,243 points up from previous week’s close at 10,222 points. The UAE all-share price index of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges jumped 2.1 percent on Thursday, apparently affected by the release of British sailors.

The GulfBase GCC Index also fell 1.14 percent last week to 4,887.04. The value of GCC traded shares fell 19.66 percent to $20.33 billion and volume declined by 13.95 percent to 3.47 billion shares.