14/03/2009 00:00 AST
Saudi shares plummeted for the fourth consecutive week amid a spate of pre-emptive selling of blue chips particularly petrochemical and banking stocks before they announce their first quarter results.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) plunged 5.02 percent from last week, closing at 4,130.15 points.
TASI is currently 14 percent lower than the year’s start.
“The Saudi stock market will continue its narrow fluctuation, while investors eye the upcoming corporate results for the first quarter of 2009,” the Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG) said in its weekly report.
Small cap stocks continued their negative performance last week as a result of profit-taking trades, especially in the insurance and agriculture sectors, the BIG said.
Halwani Brothers Co. was the top gainer last week as its shares jumped 22.97 percent to close at SR26.50.
The value of traded shares also fell to SR16.32 billion last week compared to SR17 billion in the previous week. Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) dominated trading value at 15 percent followed by Alinma Bank at 6 percent and Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Maaden) at 5 percent.
Saudi British Bank (SABB) shares closed 30.53 percent down to SR39.60. The extraordinary general assembly of SABB approved on Tuesday the capital increase through bonus shares. Arab stock markets incurred fresh losses last week as a lack of confidence reigned and investors held low expectations regarding first quarter results, financial analysts said yesterday.
“I believe Arab bourses are heading for worse situations due to pessimistic expectations regarding the performance of listed firms in the first quarter of the year,” Nizar Taher, head of brokerage at the Jordan Ahli Bank, said.
“I think ambiguity surrounding world markets helps to enhance a lack of confidence in regional markets with investors resorting to speculative trading to avert further losses,” he said.
Jordanian stocks lost fresh ground last week, ignoring the Central Bank of Jordan’s decision to slash key interest rates by a half percentage point.
Distribution of dividends is sparking waves of stock selling regardless of the performance of these stocks, a development that refers to “lack of confidence”, Taher said.
The all-share index of the Amman Stock Exchange closed week lower at 2,595 points compared with previous week’s close at 2,606 points due to persistent selling of strategic stocks mainly the Arab Bank, the Jordan Petroleum Refinery, the Arab Potash Co. and the Jordan Phosphate Mines Co.
Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 0.3 percent, closing week at 6,553 points.
The United Arab Emirates stocks closed lower in response to turmoil on the global markets that helped to worsen confidence further, UAE analyst Khalid Darwish said.
The all-share price index of the Dubai exchange shed 0.8 percent, closing at 1,504 points while the Abu Dhabi bourse plummeted 4 percent last week, to close at 2,318 points.
Egypt’s AGX 30, which measures the performance of the market’s 30 most active stocks, gained 3.5 percent, to close at 3,701 points.
The GulfBase GCC Index fell 1.58 percent to 2,705.23 points. The value of traded shares also declined 10.74 percent to $6.11 billion and volume dropped 24.29 percent to 3.79 billion of shares.
Arab News
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