They expected regional stocks to benefit from the US central bank’s blueprint of monetary easing, whereby it envisages buying 600 billion dollars of additional bonds by mid-2011 to prop up the struggling economy.

“We believe the new US monetary stimulus will have a positive impact on Middle East investors, particularly in the Gulf area,” Wajdi Makhamreh, CEO of the Amman-based Noor Investments brokerage, told Arab News.

He pointed out that the new US stimulus would push up oil prices, which he said would remain one of the ”major moving factors” for Middle East markets in the coming months.

Crude prices rose to a two-year high on Thursday, above 87 dollars per barrel.

“The gains scored by Wall Street and other major global markets after the Fed’s plan will also leave a positive sentiment on Arab bourses next week and perhaps beyond,” Makhamreh said.

He expected the Gulf petrochemical sector to be one of the major beneficiaries of the new US monetary easing.

Saudi shares rebounded last week, led by petrochemical and banking sectors, which went up by 2.55 percent and 0.48 percent respectively.

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) of the Arab world’s largest stock exchange gained 0.5 percent on weekly basis, closing at 6,344.02 points.

Saudi investors were turning their attention to the annual corporate earnings and the reaction of global markets to the new Fed stimulus plan, analysts said.

Jordanian shares were volatile last week as the management of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) placed under custody assets of more leading investors pending repayment of loans, Makhamreh said.

The market’s all-share index gained 0.2 percent last week, to close at 2,337 points, according to the ASE weekly report.

Kuwaiti stocks rallied for the second week in a row, deriving momentum from news that the country’s largest telecom operator, Zain, was going ahead with plans to sell 47 percent stake to the United Arab Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (Etisalat) in a deal valued at about 10 billion dollars.

Kuwait’s KSE all-share index gained 0.8 percent last week, closing at 7,124 points.

The United Arab Emirates stock markets retreated sharply last week after a series of gains amid reports that foreign investors were selling to make profit.

The benchmark of the Dubai stock exchange shed 2.22 percent last week, closing at 1,737 points, while the all-share index of the Abu Dhabi bourse went down 2.35 percent, closing at 2,750 points, under selling pressure from the real estate sector, analysts said.

Egypt’s AGX30 index, measuring the performance of the market’s 30 most active shares, gained 1 percent on weekly basis, closing at 6,764 points.