AMMAN: Saudi shares ignored swine flu last week and rebounded strongly as stocks received momentum from the banking and petrochemical sectors.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) climbed 7.8 percent last week, closing at 5,625.51 points. TASI is currently 17.1 percent higher than the year’s start. Saudi shares were buoyed by the Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), which gained 16 percent last week following heavy losses previous week when the conglomerate announced historical losses for the first quarter of the year.
“SABIC’s gains reflect investors’ optimism over the improvement of the company’s performance in the coming months, given stable oil prices,” the Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG) said in its weekly report.
However, the group warned that speculative trading could have “a negative impact on the whole market”.
“Therefore, we advise investors to conduct trading on the basis of financial results of listed firms rather than rumors,” the BIG said. The stock market turnover was over SR35.42 billion last week.
Arab markets ended last week with mixed performance, but financial analysts said yesterday they expected regional markets to be “indirectly affected” by swine flu.
Jordanian shares were volatile last week and Makhamreh said that a profit-taking move and first-quarter results of some firms, which came below expectations, pushed prices down.
The ASE all-share index shed 2.03 percent last week, closing at 2,737 points, according to the market’s weekly report. Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 1.9 percent last week to close at 7,557 points.
The benchmark price of the United Arab Emirates stock exchange of Dubai fell 2.9 percent last week, closing at 1,606 points.
