AMMAN: Arab stock markets rebounded last week, deriving momentum from better-than-expected second quarter results, rising oil prices and gains scored by the Wall Street and other global bourses, financial analysts said on Friday.
Saudi shares showed a robust performance last week, propelled by the good semi-annual earnings of the banking sector, which was widely expected to report drastically lower profits due to the global recession. The market’s leader, the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), gained 12.5 percent last week, deriving momentum from remarks by a senior official that prices of the conglomerate’s products had gone up tangibly recently.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) gained 4 percent last week, closing at 5,631.78 points.
TASI is currently 17.3 percent higher than the year’s start, according to the weekly report of the Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG).
The group expected the upward trend at the Saudi bourse to continue if blue chip firms, particularly SABIC, reported satisfactory gains and crude prices went up further.
Jordanian shares fluctuated violently last week after the Central Bank of Jordan suspended trading of the Capital Bank. The all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange gained 0.69 percent last week, closing at 2,599 points, according to the ASE weekly report.
Kuwait’s KSE all-share index was up 1.2 percent, closing week at 7,580 points.
The benchmark prices of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi gained 3.3 percent and 2.3 percent, to close respectively at 1,737 points and 2,677 points. Egypt’s AGX30 index, measuring the performance of the market’s 30 most active stocks, climbed 4.1 percent last week, closing at 5,684 points.