RIYADH, 2 January 2002 — The US military buildup in the Gulf and threats to attack Iraq strongly influenced Mideast stock markets in 2002, but Gulf shares bucked the global downward trend and prospered on high oil prices, analysts said yesterday.
As stock markets in most of the Gulf Arab states and Iran rose sharply, other stocks in the region fared poorly due to political uncertainty and the Palestinian uprising.
The Tehran Stock Exchange’s (TSE) all-shares index, the TEPIX, ended 2002 on 5,044.06 points, up 41.3 percent from 3,570.90 a year ago. The TSE-50 listing of the top 50 companies closed 27 percent up at 298.22 points from 234.74 at end-2001.
Abbas Dehghan, director of market surveillance in the TSE, also pointed to the performance of the TEDPIX (Tehran Stock Exchange Dividend and Price Index), up 58 percent to 11,098.18 points from 7,020.36.
Qatar’s CBQ Index was the best performer among the Gulf Arab states, gaining a staggering 40.4 percent to finish 2002 on 420.48 points from last year’s 299.43 points, the Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said.
The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) followed a 27-percent increase in 2001 with a whopping 39 percent jump in 2002, reaching 2,375.3 points, its highest level since March 1998.
Oman’s MSM Index closed the year on 191.86 points, up 26.1 percent on 2001 closing of 152.08 points, while the United Arab Emirates’ NBAD Index rose 14.5 percent to finish 2002 on 3,408.49 points from last year’s 2,976.45 points.
The Lebanese BLOM Index also gained 4.3 percent to close on 453.2 points at the end of 2002 from last year’s 434.45 points.
A substantial part of the gains were scored after Lebanon secured in November a $4.4 billion assistance pledge from international donors to tackle its huge debt problem.
In Saudi Arabia, the Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI) finished the year on 2,518.08 points, up 3.6 percent on the 2001 closing of 2,430.11 points.
Bahrain BSE Index finished 2002 on 1,821.49 points, up 3.4 percent from 1,761.46.
In Egypt, the broad-based Hermes Financial Index added 98.92 points, or 1.8 percent in 2002 to close on 5,371.42 points from 5,272.5 points.
Egypt suffered from a decline in tourism after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which forced a currency devaluation in January 2002, and US threats of war against Iraq have increased investors’ worries.
The Palestinian Al-Quds Index suffered because of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, shedding 22.6 percent to end the year on 151.16 points from last year’s 195.
The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) index fell by a slight 1.7 percent to 170.02 points compared to 172.27 in 2001, according to official figures.
Tunisia’s TUNINDEX fell 11.7 percent to 1,119.15 points from last year’s 1,266.89, while Morocco’s CFG Index dropped 16.5 percent to finish 2002 on 7,377.25 points from 8,837.55. Analysts drew a gloomy picture for 2003.
"There’s political and economic uncertainty: We know for sure that something will happen in the area very close to us," Kuwaiti economist Jassem Al-Saadun said. (AFP)
