JEDDAH/AMMAN: Saudi shares shrugged off a record spending figure in the budget projections that were unveiled on Monday by the government despite retreating crude prices.

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) extended losses on Wednesday to close at 4,669.05 points, which represents a 4.79 percent decline from previous week. The index is still down 57.70 percent so far this year.

The plunge was led by the petrochemical sector, particularly the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC). Its shares plunge 11.86 percent to SR52 with market turnover of over SR2 billion.

“The market is apparently experiencing a mood of non-confidence and a liquidity crunch that sparked a sell-off,” said Khalid Jawhar, a Saudi analyst from the Jawhar Consultancy Bureau.

“I believe the brunt of losses should be borne by heads of companies for their failure to stick to the transparency standards and reveal the positions of their firms,” he added.

“After the disclosure of the government’s budget, investors main concern and focus will be on the annual financial statements, specially that of the leading companies operating in both the banking and financial services and the petrochemical industries sectors, that are expected to calm down investors exaggerated fears about the market, unless oil prices continue to decline,” the Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Group (BIG) said in its weekly report.

Saudi Fisheries Co. was the top gainer last week as its shares surged 49.47 percent to close at SR28.40. The other major gainers were Saudi IAIC Cooperative Insurance Co., up 24.39 percent, Allied Cooperative Insurance Co. (23.3 percent), Saudi Fransi Cooperative Insurance Co. (22.4 percent) and Al-Ahli Takaful Co. (21.1 percent).

Saudi Hollandi Bank was the top loser last week as its shares declined 11.56 percent to SR44.

The value of traded shares fell to SR18 billion last week compared to SR22.42 billion in the previous week.

Arab stock markets plummeted across the board last week under the pressure of declining oil prices and investor’s gloomy outlook over annual results of listed firms, financial analysts said yesterday.

“The adamantly falling oil prices are riding roughshod over regional stocks and helping to aggravate the lack of confidence that gripped Arab markets over the past couple of months due to the worldwide recession,” an Amman-based portfolio manager said.

“I also believe that last week’s plunge was mainly due to investors’ predictions that the corporate results for 2008 will be worse than expected earlier,” he said.

Jordanian stocks also plummeted last week under the impact of losses incurred by other Arab markets.

The All-Share Price Index of the Amman Stock Exchange shed 4.95 percent last week, closing at 2,797 points, according to the ASE weekly report.

The decline was led by blue chips, mainly the Arab Potash Co., the Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. and the Jordan Petroleum Refinery.

Kuwaiti stocks also extended losses last week apparently for the delay in starting trading by a multibillion-dollar government-run fund set up deliberately to ensure stability at the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange.

The KSE all-share price index fell 4.4 percent, closing week at 8,241 points.

The benchmark of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi also sank to a record low of 2,453 points last week.

The UAE stocks lost 59.2 percent of their value since the beginning of the year, according to analysts.

Egypt’s CASE-30 index, which measures the performance of the market’s 30 most active stocks, shed 2.14 percent last week, closing at 4,358 points.

The GulfBase GCC Index fell 7.14 percent to close at 3,287.44 points. The value of GCC traded shares dropped by 20.64 percent to $7.29 billion and volume declined 14.20 percent to 3.24 billion of shares.

— With input from Abdul Jalil Mustafa