CAIRO, 8 November 2003 — Nearly all stock markets in the Middle East scored gains in the week ending Thursday on the back of good corporate earnings in the third quarter and strong oil prices, analysts said.
Among Arab bourses, Qatar led gains as its CBQ index rose 3.8 percent on the week, closing at 700.81 points Thursday. Egypt’s CASE 30 index followed with a 3.3 percent weekly jump to 1,107.9 points on the same day.
Jordan’s ASE index rose 2.6 percent on the week to close at 236.86 points Thursday, and Kuwait’s KSE index closed Wednesday at 4,471.30 points, up 1.9 percent on the week. “It’s a bull market correction,” said Walid Shihabi, from the Dubai-based Shuaa Capital investment bank.
He said Arab markets had gone down sometime prior to the release of third quarter earnings, and have rebounded as “investors are reassured over the profitability of the main companies.”
In Egypt, about two dozen companies declared cash dividends during the week. In Kuwait, the market rose for the second week in a row after two weeks of losses.
Kuwait’s KSE index is the top gainer among Arab bourses this year. It is now 88.2 percent higher than its 2002 closing, but still down 0.9 percent on its all-time high of 4,512.30 points on Oct. 18.
Saudi Arabia’s all-share TASI index closed Thursday on 4,074.89 points, up 0.77 percent on the week. “Blue chip stocks pushed the market up this week to recover a part of it’s previous losses in the previous four weeks,” Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors said in its weekly report.
“Investors are re-building their portfolio positions after the release of third quarter 2003 financial results,” it added.
It also noted that the rise came on the heel of a rebound in oil prices, the main resource of Gulf governments, after a decline in US fuel stock. The Saudi share market is the largest in the Arab world.
Bahrain’s all-share BSE index closed down 1.2 percent on the week at 2,240.62 points Thursday, but the SICO index, which tracks the largest companies, closed up 0.4 percent at 1,567.18 points.
Iran’s Tepix and Oman’s MSM indices both gained 0.5 percent on the week, closing at 9,308.27 points and 266.64 points Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
The United Arab Emirates’ NBAD index closed at 4,373.24 points Wednesday, up 0.25 percent on the week.
The Palestinian Al-Quds index closed higher by 2.8 percent on the week at 169.16 points Thursday.
