JEDDAH/AMMAN, 30 June 2007 — The Saudi stock market was relatively stable last week after a plunge that continued for the past few weeks. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) fell slightly last week, closing at 7,011.16 points down from 7,022.05 points previous week. The index lost over 100 points on Wednesday.
TASI is currently 11.62 percent lower that the year’s start.
“While investors are eying the corporate results which are expected to be out within the next few days, we believe that the midyear results particularly of blue chips will represent the driving force that decides the trend of market,” the Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said in its weekly report.
The Arabian Shield Cooperative Insurance Company (ASCIC), which made debut on Tadawul on Tuesday, was the top gainer with 560 percent increase at SR66.
Other insurance companies, which also started trading this month, made solid gains last week. Shares of Saudi IAIC Insurance Cooperative Co. (Salama) soared 19.78 percent to SR80.25 and SABB Takaful by 60.23 percent to SR139.
Shares of Saudi Industrial Export Co. also jumped 21 percent last week to SR66.25 and Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co. by 20 percent to SR12.
The agriculture sector was in the red as shares of Hail Agriculture fell 7.69 percent to SR27, Qassim Agriculture by 5.48 percent to SR17.25, Tabuk Agriculture by 4.71 percent to SR45.50 and Saudi Fisheries by 4.67 percent to SR71.50.
The stock market turnover, however, increased to SR36.82 billion last week compared to SR26.46 billion in the previous week.
Arab stock markets appeared last week in a consolidation phase as investors awaited the mid-year corporate results to decide the composition of their portfolios in the coming period, financial analysts said yesterday.
“I believe the results of listed firms in the first six months of the year will decide the inclinations of investors, who will decide their positions accordingly,” Amman-based analyst Wajdi Makhamreh told Arab News.
“However, I believe that investors will continue to adopt a hit-and-run strategy in the coming months regardless of semi-annual profits, out of the belief that such a behavior will help them avert sudden market fluctuations and losses,” he said.
Makhamreh expected speculation to remain dominant at regional markets despite the positive fundamentals they enjoy, foremost soaring oil prices and the subsequent huge surplus oil income accruing to Gulf countries.
However, he said that Arab stocks particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council states “have gone down to levels that are set to lure buyers.”
The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) was the scene on Thursday for a move by its watchdog to cancel all last-minute transactions by leading brokerage firms that had the aim of raising the value of their portfolios.
“The Jordan Stocks Commission apparently interfered to cancel the last-minute transaction that were designed to affect the closing prices of leading firms, such as the Arab Bank, in order to manipulate the value of their portfolios,” Makhamreh said.
As a result of this move, the ASE all-share price index closed week on Thursday at 5,762 points which represented a 1.1 percent decline from previous week’s close at 5,825 points. Kuwaiti shares rallied for the fourth week in a row last week, crashing the 12,000-point psychological barrier, under the impact of investors’ expectations of semi-annual profits of listed firms, according to the Global Investment House.
The KSE all-share price index gained further 1 percent closing at 12,068 points compared with previous week’s close at 11,943 points.
The unified all-share price index of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi shed 2.1 percent last week, closing at 4,520 points down from 4,616 points previous week. The UAE benchmark price is currently 12.1 percent higher than the year’s start, analysts said.
The GulfBase GCC Index also dropped slightly to 5,186.06 points. The value of GCC traded shares, however, rose 14 percent to $15.32 billion and volume declined 0.19 percent to 4.88 billion shares.