TASI gained 1.71 percent last week, closing at an 18-month high of 6,890.74 points, mainly driven by the earnings of petrochemical and banking sectors.

With the exception of Monday, all other trading days TASI closed positive, with the daily 5-day moving average acting as a support, while the upper Bollinger band was a resistance on a daily basis. On a week-to-week basis, the upper Bollinger band has managed to maintain its role as the resistance level, whereas the 5-week moving average did act as an effective support level to the market at the lower side of the range, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its weekly market commentary.

Sector gains on a week-to-week basis were seen in 11 of the 15 sectors. The four sectors that closed the week with losses were Hotel & Tourism, Banks & Financial Services, Real Estate Development and Energy & Utilities, which were down 0.35 percent, 0.75 percent, 0.96 percent and 4.66 percent respectively. All other sectors showed gains that ranged from 0.01 percent in the Media & Publishing sector to a gain of 6.40 percent in the Petrochemical Industries sector, the FTH report said.

On an individual company basis, the top gaining companies for the week were National Petrochemical Company and Yanbu National Petrochemical Company, which were up 19.08 percent and 14.18 percent respectively. The biggest decliner on the other hand was Riyad Bank, which saw a loss of 7.42 percent.

The value of Saudi traded shares increased to SR23.60 billion last week compared to SR16.20 billion in the previous week.

"I believe the Saudi market is taking a more healthy course and heading to fresh gains," said Abdullah Baeshen, board chairman of the Riyadh-based TeamOne financial consultancy.

"The first quarter results and the performance of foreign markets are apparently reflecting positively on Saudi stocks," he added.

According to Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) report, of the total 101 companies covered during the period January-March under equity research statistics, UAE and Saudi Arabia had the maximum coverage of 31 percent each followed by Kuwait and Qatar with 11 each.

Qatar had the maximum proportion of listed companies covered during the period at (25 percent) followed by Saudi Arabia (22 percent).

Companies having research coverage accounted for 57 percent of the total market capitalization of GCC benchmark indices. The companies with research coverage in Saudi Arabia accounted for 70 percent of its total market capitalization, while companies covered in Bahrain accounted for the lowest (26 percent). However, Oman's coverage based on market capitalization was at 50 percent in January-March period.

Out of the total 212 research notes published during the period January-March, 62 percent were rated as "Buy", 29 percent as "Hold", and 9 percent as "Sell", the Markaz report said.

Almarai Co. had the highest number of equity research notes (8), followed by Etihad Etisalat Co., Arabtec Holding (each with 7 notes). Almarai along with Etihad Etisalat and Aldar Properties received the maximum number (6) of "Buy" recommendations, the report added.

Other Arab stocks extended gains last week, propelled by first quarter earnings, steady oil prices and the positive performance of global markets, financial analysts said Friday.

They also expected regional bourses to derive fresh momentum from reports about sustainable world recovery, particularly in China, where the world's third economy grew at a strong pace of 11.9 percent in the first quarter of the year.

"I believe the surging Chinese economy and indications about a sustainable world recovery in general will enhance demand for oil and consequently push crude prices further," an Amman-based portfolio manager said.

"Higher oil prices will mean larger surplus petrodollars which mostly seek investment outlets in stock markets," he said.

Jordanian shares also scored fresh gains last week "amid an atmosphere of optimism" that the worse was over, Samer Sonnokrot, director general of the Capital Investments, said.

He attributed the returning confidence to the first quarter results and improving macroeconomic indicators. The all-share index of the Amman Stock Exchange gained 0.85 percent last week, to close at 2,625 points, according to the ASE weekly report.

Kuwaiti shares suffered last week mainly due to reports that the US army was replacing the Kuwaiti logistics firm, Agility, by a new company as the main supplier to the US military in Kuwait and Iraq, analysts said.

Kuwait's KSE All-Share Index shed 2.44 percent last week, closing at 7,385 points.

"I believe the market came to suffer during the last two days of the week due to sell-off by speculators who targeted leading stocks," Maitham Al-Shakhs of the Global Investment House said.

United Arab Emirates stocks rebounded last week amid improving prospects for rescheduling Dubai World debts and the resumption of foreign buying, analysts said.

The benchmarks of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges gained 2.9 percent and 1.2 percent, to close respectively at 1,816 points and 2,857 points.

Egypt's AGX30 index, measuring the performance of the markets' 30 most active stocks, climbed 4.9 percent due to intensive foreign buying, closing at 7,574 points.

The GulfBase GCC Index edged higher by 0.41 percent to 4,077.53 points. The value of GCC traded shares surged by 38.53 percent to $9.93 billion and volume increased by 7.90 percent to 4.48 billion of shares.