JEDDAH/AMMAN: Saudi shares extended gains last week as the market reacted positively to the announcement by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) that allowed authorized intermediaries to enter into swap agreements with non-resident foreign investors.

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) gained 5.14 percent last week, closing at 8,898.97 points from 8,465.71 points in the previous week.

The TASI is currently 19.38 percent lower than the year’s start. The market was led last week by the sectors of the banking and financial services, petrochemical industries and telecommunications, the Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG) said in its weekly report.

The BIG expected the Saudi stock exchange to “perform steadily in the coming days as investors monitor the third-quarter results of listed firms particularly blue chips.”

Samba Financial Group was the top gainer last week as its shares jumped 17.42 percent to SR77.50. Shares in Allied Cooperative Insurance Group (ACIG) plunged 10.58 percent to SR65.50 last week.

The stock market turnover rose sharply to SR32.69 billion last week compared to SR23.67 billion in the previous week.

Arab stock markets are expected to be volatile in the coming weeks with the advent of the fasting month of Ramadan either on Monday or Tuesday, financial analysts said yesterday. They also expected the attention of investors to focus in the coming period on the third-quarter results, particularly of leading firms, as a key element for deciding the markets’ trend.

“I believe regional markets will be volatile during the month of Ramadan, when investors usually prefer to stay on the sidelines,” Wajdi Makhamreh, chief operating officer at the Amman-based Sanabel International Holding, said.

“I also think investors will keep an eye on the third-quarter results of blue chips and any other new moving factors to decide their future positions,” he said.

Jordanian shares rebounded strongly last week after previous week’s plunge, which Makhamreh attributed mainly to the selling of stocks by foreigners, who moved to other more profitable markets like the United States.

The Arab Potash Co., the Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. and the Jordan Petroleum Refinery led the recovery.

The All-Share Price Index of the Amman Stock Exchange gained 6.87 percent last week to close at 4,317 points compared with previous week’s close at 4.040 points, according to the ASE weekly report. “I believe Jordanian stocks will be relatively stable in the coming weeks, until the mergence of fresh moving factors,” Makhamreh said.

Kuwaiti stocks lost some ground last week as speculation continued to affect decisions of investors.

The KSE all-share price index shed 0.6 percent, closing at 14,499 points from 14,588 points in the previous week.

The benchmark of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi declined 1.5 percent last week, closing at 5,337 points from 5,417 points previous week.

Egyptian shares received a boost last week from foreign buying of leading stocks, analysts said. Egypt’s CASE-30 index, which measures the performance of the market’s 30 most active firms, gained 4.9 percent to 8,375 points from 7,983 points in the previous week.

The GulfBase GCC Index increased slightly last week to 6,286.92 points. The value of GCC traded shares surged 18.89 percent to SR12.91 billion and volume increased 10.72 percent to 3.32 billion of shares.

BMG turnover soars

The BMG Saudi Index increased week-on-week by 5 percent to 481.86 points. The total market turnover appreciated by a strong 53.8 percent to SR14.9 billion ($4.0 billion), compared to SR9.6 billion ($2.6 billion) registered in the previous week. The number of shares traded went up by 48.6 percent to 326.43 million shares, compared to previous week’s 219.6 million shares. The average price-earnings (P/E) ratio for 2007 earnings was 26.33 times, while the price-to-book (P/B) ratio was 4.83 times.

All sectors recorded gains. The beta coefficient for the sectors was 1.03 for the industrial sector, 1.00 for the banking sector, 0.99 for the services sectors, 0.76 for the telecommunications sector and 0.35 for the insurance sector.