JEDDAH/AMMAN — Banque Saudi Fransi, manager of the initial public offering (IPO) of Saudi Arabia’s third GSM operator Zain, announced yesterday that the IPO was oversubscribed 283 percent.
“Each shareholder, who has bought more than 50 shares, will receive 83 shares and the surplus amount will be returned on Sunday,” the bank said. Zain had offered 700 million shares in the IPO.
Jean Marion, managing director of the bank, said more than 8.53 million Saudis had bought Zain shares, investing more than SR17.83 billion.
“The IPO was a big success considering the large number of shares on offer,” Marion said. The mobile phone company had offered 50 percent of its shares to the public. This is the eighth IPO managed by BSF. In 2007 alone it managed seven IPOs.
Meanwhile, Saudi shares performed vigorously last week with the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and Al-Rajhi Bank taking the lead.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) climbed 10.3 percent last week, closing at 10,127.10 points up from 9,185.07 points previous week. TASI is currently 9.4 percent lower than the year’s start.
Al-Rajhi Bank shares jumped 10.94 percent to SR109 and SABIC by 17.12 percent to SR183.
The Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG) said in its weekly report that the Saudi market to “continue its gradual increase amid easing concerns about negative impact from the trend on international markets.”
The stock market also surged to SR51.89 billion last week compared to SR44.20 billion in the previous week.
Arab stock markets firmed last week deriving support from soaring oil prices and low prices of blue chip firms which plummeted over the past few weeks under the psychological pressure of US slowdown concerns, financial analysts said yesterday.
They expected regional bourses to continue their upward trend in the coming few weeks as investors expect a major part of the huge Gulf surplus petrodollars to find their way to stock markets. “I believe the record oil prices and the low prices of blue chip firms will provide strong driving force to regional bourses in the months ahead,” Nizar Taher, head of brokerage at the Jordan Ahli Bank, told Arab News.
“Investors have now become aware that the plunges which rocked Arab stock markets as a result of the US recession fears were illogical and unfounded,” he said.
Jordanian shares also rebounded last week, propelled by a strong demand on leading stocks, notably the Arab Bank, the Arab Potash Co. and the Jordan Phosphate Mines Co.
The all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange gained 4.36 percent last week, closing at 8,086 points from 7,857 points last week, according to the ASE weekly report. “The market was moved by foreign buying particularly from the Gulf region,” Taher said.
Kuwaiti stocks also extended gains last week supported by strong buying on selective shares as well as profits and dividends announced by leading companies, according the Gulf Invest Co.’s weekly report. Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index went up by 1.48 percent last week to close at 13,915 points compared with previous week’s close at 13,712 points.
The all-share price index of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi gained 1.7 percent last week, closing at 6,128 points from 6,026 points previous week.
Egypt’s CASE 30 index, measuring the performance of the market’s 30 most active firms, climbed 5.0 percent last week, closing at 10,841 points from 10,318 points previous week. Egyptian shares found support from foreign buying that focused on blue chip stocks, analysts said.
The GulfBase GCC Index surged 4.85 percent to 6,866.69 points last week. The value of GCC traded shares also edged higher by 21.99 percent to $23.50 billion and volume increased by 25.64 percent to 7.32 billion of shares.
BMG Index Rises
The BMG Saudi Index witnessed a week-on-week rise by 11.9 percent or 58.6 points to 550.1. The total turnover jumped by 19.5 percent to SR23.4 billion ($6.2 billion), compared to SR19.6 billion ($5.2 billion) in the previous week.
Most of the shares performed positively as 27 shares appreciated and only two descended. The best performer last week was SABB Takaful, surging by 18.8 percent to SR113.75 per share. The worst performer was Malath Cooperative Insurance and Reinsurance Company, whose share price dipped by 5.8 percent to SR114.75.
