JEDDAH, 28 January 2006 — The Saudi stock market witnessed some of its heaviest trading last week, buoyed mainly by the strong gains of the Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and Al-Rajihi Banking & Investment Corp.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) climbed 6.22 percent, to close on Thursday at an all-time high of 18,751.78 points from 17,653.72 points previous week. The index rose by 1,098.06 points in a week. TASI is currently 12.20 percent higher than the year’s start.
Analysts at the Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said that in the light of record profits announced so far by leading Saudi companies, “we expect investors to eye the yet-to-be announced results of blue chip firms so that they can re-evaluate their positions”.
Over SR206 billion worth of shares changed hands last week in hectic trading compared to SR97 billion in the previous week.
Shares of the STC jumped 15.44 percent in a week to close on Thursday at SR1,226. SABIC shares rose 2.83 percent to SR1,717.25 and Al-Rajhi Bank 18 percent to SR3,540. The value of SABIC shares traded rose to SR9.84 billion last week, followed by Savola Group to SR9.49 billion, Qassim Agriculture to SR7.78 billion and STC to SR7.69 billion.
Meanwhile, Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 1.6 percent last week to close at 11.847.5 points from 11.662.3 points in previous week.The all-share average index of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi shed 3.8 percent last week to close on Thursday at 6,675 points, down from 6,941 points previous week.
The decline took place mainly in response to what UAE analyst Mohammad Ali Yassin described as “disappointing dividends” announced by several listed firms in spite of their good results for 2005.
Egypt’s Hermes all-share price index climbed 5.4 percent last week, closing at an all-time high of 66,866 points, compared with previous week’s close at 63,468 points.
The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) suffered losses for the second week in a row due to a sell-off by investors to cover their subscription in the new issue of the heavyweight Arab Bank that doubled its capital to about $500 million, dealers said.
The ASE all-share price index shed 3 percent last week, closing on Thursday at 8,288 points, down from 8,545 points in previous week, according to the market’s weekly report.
