JEDDAH/AMMAN — Arab stocks retained their steady performance last week, buoyed by annual profits as well as easing of US economic fears, financial analysts said yesterday.

With the exception of Saudi stocks, regional shares gained fresh ground last week as more listed firms announced their 2007 balance sheets and dividends.

The Saudi stock market continued its volatile performance for the second week in a row with speculation emerging again as the dominant factor, according to the weekly report of the Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG).

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) shed 1.97 percent last week, closing at 9,484.41 points from 9,675.02 points in the previous week. TASI is currently 15.1 percent lower than the year’s start.

BIG expected the Saudi market to “continue its relative calmness during this week, with a chance of gradual rebound following recent plunges”. However, the BIG warned against the possibility of a downward corrective wave in case the speculation in small camps continued.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s third mobile operator Zain offers 700 million shares with a nominal value of SR10 per share in an initial public offering (IPO) that begins today. Marwan Alahmadi, the company’s CEO, said 90 percent of the offered shares have been set aside for individual subscribers.

As many as five million Saudis are expected to purchase Zain’s stocks while analysts predicted that each individual investor would receive at least 100 to 120 shares in final allocations. The company will use the IPO returns (SR6.91 billion), to pay part of the license fee.

In the insurance sector, shares of Arabia Insurance Cooperative Company, which started trading on Monday, jumped 555 percent to SR65.50 last week. The other gainers last week were Saudi IAIC Cooperative Insurance Co. as its shares increased by 58.71 percent to SR166.25, Malath Cooperative Insurance and Reinsurance Company by 28.57 percent to SR126 and Saudi Arabian Cooperative Insurance Company by 19.88 percent to SR104.

Shares of Saudi Industrial Investment Group fell by 43.83 percent to SR33 last week. Saudi International Petrochemical Co. and Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co. shares dropped by 15.15 percent and 12.96 percent, respectively.

Shares of Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. (Petro Rabigh) also declined by 9.22 percent to SR49.25 last week. The stock market turnover last week was SR63.69 billion compared to SR78.54 billion in the previous week.

“I believe Arab bourses are receiving support from annual results particularly of blue chip firms and the restoration of investors’ confidence in the wake of the latest historic plunges on US economic concerns,” Wajdi Makhamreh, CEO of Amman-based Al-Sanabel Brokerage Company, said.

The Jordanian market retained its steady performance last week. The all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange edged higher at 7,857 points last compared with previous week’s close at 7,824 points, according to the ASE weekly report.

Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 1.37 percent last week to close at 13,686.3 points from 13,499.7 points in the previous week.

United Arab Emirates shares also gained ground last week, propelled by 2007 results. The all-share price index of the UAE bourses of Dubai and Abu Dhabi upped 1.03 percent, closing at 6,023 points from 5,833 points in the previous week.

Egyptian shares retreated last week amid reports of departures from the market by foreign funds in response to US slowdown concerns.

Egypt’s CASE 30 all-share index, measuring the performance of the market’s 30 most active stocks, lost 0.4 percent on Thursday, closing week at 10,212.6 points.

The GulfBase GCC Index increased by 43.42 percent to 9,484.41 points. The value of GCC traded shares, however, fell 6.90 percent to $27.17 billion while volume increased by 10 percent to 7.66 billion of shares.

BMG Index Fails to Maintain Positive Trend

The BMG Saudi Index did not maintain its positive performance of last week and declined by 2.9 percent, closing at 506 points. In addition, the total weekly turnover dropped by 18 percent to SR22.9 billion ($6.1 billion), down from SR27.9 billion ($7.4 billion), registered throughout previous week. The average P/E ratio for 2006 earnings was 22.59 times, whereas the price-to-book ratio was 4.36 times.

The sectors followed the index’s downtrend, except for the insurance sector, which appreciated by a strong 18.3 percent, to close at 910.9 points. Regarding the Beta coefficient for each sector, the services sector recorded 1.07 points, whilst the telecommunications sector attained 1.06 points.

The Beta coefficient reached 1.02 by the agricultural sector, 1.0 by the industrial sector, 0.87 by the banking sector, 0.62 by the electricity sector, and, finally, 0.19 by the insurance sector.

Only Eight stocks saw increases in their share prices last week.