The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) tumbled 3.94 percent last week, closing at 6,093.76 points. On a week-to-week basis, the sector activity remained negatively biased with all sectors closing with losses except the Retail sector with a gain of 0.61 percent. On the other hand the losing sectors ranged from 0.25 percent by the Cement sector to 6.48 percent by the Real Estate Development Sector, the Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its weekly market commentary.

The Saudi stock exchange apparently reacted negatively to the G20 summit which "failed to develop immunity for the world financial system", Jeddah-based Saudi analyst Yassin Jafri said.

"Over the past weeks, the entire world has been watching a new financial collapse to take place due to the European sovereign debt problem," he added.

However, he expected Saudi shares to pick up, thanks to the Kingdom's strong macroeconomic indicators and adamantly high oil prices.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) shares fell by 6.03 percent to SR85.75 last week. Saudi Industrial Investment Group shares declined by 11 percent, National Industrialization Co. by 10.23 percent and Sahara Petrochemical by 8.98 percent.

Etihad Etisalat shares dropped 4.68 percent to SR47.90 last week Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) shares also fell 1.57 percent to SR37.70. STC has significantly underperformed the TASI on YTD basis. While STC declined 10 percent on YTD basis in 2010, TASI gained 3 percent during the same period, the Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) said in its latest report.

STC stock lost 4 percent in 2009 compared to an index gain of 27 percent. STC's current P/E is at 7.6x; STC's PE fell nearly 3 percent in 2009, and further 3.7 percent YTD 2010, the Markaz report said.

The Saudi stock market turnover was over SR14.58 billion last week.

Arab stock markets plummeted across the board last week under pressure from global markets slump, uncertainty over world recovery and negative predictions concerning second quarter results, financial analysts said Friday.

They also attributed the plunge of Middle East bourses to the failure of the G20 summit in Toronto to give a hand to the faltering world economy and to volatile oil prices.

"The indecisive outcome of the G20 summit have apparently left its negative impact on regional markets," an Amman-based portfolio manager said.

"However, we expect investors to keep a close eye on the half-yearly results and the movement of crude prices," he said.

Investors were also forced to cover their positions at the end of June, thus aggravating sell-offs and pushing prices further down, he added.

Jordanian shares were volatile last week due to the persistent lack of confidence and liquidity crunch, analysts said.

The all-share index of the Amman Stock Exchange shed 1.32 percent last week, closing at 2,349 points.

Kuwait's KSE all-share index also plunged 2.92 per cent last week, to close at 6,432 points due to hectic sell-off that involved all sectors, including blue chips.

The weekly report of the Kuwait Financial Centre attributed the decline mainly to the sluggish performance of the country's business sector.

It urged the government to step in with incentives to shore up the faltering stock exchange, including larger public spending.

The United Arab Emirates shares also plummeted last week amid growing doubts over the repayment of Dubai World debts, analysts said.

The benchmarks of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi stock exchanges tumbled 4.48 percent and 1.72 percent, to close respectively at 1,470 points and 2,510 points.

Egypt's AGX30 index, measuring the performance of the market's 30 most active stocks, plummeted 4.3 percent last week, to close at 6,033 points due to intensive selling by both Egyptian and foreign investors, analysts said.

The second quarter of 2010 was one of the bloodiest quarters for Arab stock markets, mainly due to the euro zone debt crisis.

Saudi stock exchange sank 10.42 percent in the second quarter, Dubai 20.7 percent, Abu Dhabi 13.56 percent, Kuwait 13.22 percent and Egypt 11.36 percent, analysts said.

The GulfBase GCC Index fell 3.81 percent to 3,550.89 points. The value of GCC traded shares plunged 20.18 percent to $4.93 billion and volume declined 10.57 percent to 2.65 billion of shares.