• Home
• /
• Business

Arab bourses mixed in response to mid-year results

AMMAN - Arab stock markets showed mixed performances this week and financial analysts said on Friday they expected regional bourses not to behave in tandem in the coming weeks due to difference in fundamentals and moving factors.

The Saudi and Kuwaiti stock exchanges extended gains this week while the Jordanian and United Arab Emirates shares retreated.

“We believe this discrepancy in performance among Arab bourses is natural due to the different fundamentals and other factors ruling at each market, including the semi-annual results,” an Amman-based portfolio manager told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

“However, we think speculation and caution will remain a common state of affairs at all regional bourses in the coming weeks, given the extensive losses to which investors were exposed over the past year,” he said.

Saudi stocks kept up their gradual gains for the fourth week in a row this week, buoyed by the midyear results of blue chip firms, particularly in the telecommunications and banking sectors.

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) of the Saudi stock exchange gained further 1.8 per cent this week, closing at 7,633.54 points up from 7,501.56 points last week.

TASI is currently 3.8 per cent lower than the year’s start, according to the weekly report of the Riyadh-based Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA).

The report noticed a spate of speculation particularly in the insurance sector which accounted for 28 per cent of the market’s turnover whereas it represented only 1.4 per cent of the bourse’s capitalization.

The BFA expected Saudi stocks to score “gradual” gains in the coming weeks against the backdrop of a 20 per cent increase in blue chip profits in the second quarter of the year over those of the first quarter.

Jordanian shares remained steady during this week despite the forced closure of client positions on Thursday.

The all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange shed 0.63 per cent this week, closing at 5,682 points compared with last week’s closure at 5,718 points.

Kuwait’s KSE all-share price index gained 0.6 per cent this week, closing at 12,491 points up from 12,411 points last week.

The focus of trading this week was the real estate sector which accounted for about 37 per cent of the market’s volume, the Global Investment House said in its weekly report.

The unified all-share price index of the UAE stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi retreated 0.7 per cent to close this week at 4,487 points from 4,519 points last week.

Analysts attributed the decline to a “profit-taking” move particularly it came after several weeks of gains.

They expected the UAE bourses to witness fresh rebounds in the coming weeks with special focus on the real estate sector.