Blue chip Arab Bank, which represents 52 percent of market capitalization, buoyed Jordan's stock exchange, which led Arab markets in a mixed week, Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said Saturday October 27.
The Amman stock exchange index closed the week ending Friday at 161.83 points, up 4.8 percent on the previous seven days. Five more markets were up on the week but six others fell, BFA reported. The Kuwait Stock Exchange made solid gains to close at 1,650.50 points, up 1.5 percent from last week, and Lebanon's BLOM recorded the same percentage rise to close at 411.01 points, boosted by market leader Solidere.
The Palestinian Al-Quds index which led Arab stock markets last week was the worst performer this week, closing at 171.57 points, a 4.3 percent drop, following the Israeli aggressions, BFA said. Still, Al-Quds Index has gone up 26.3 percent in the last four weeks.
Bahrain Stock Exchange index gained 0.8 percent to close at 1,752.35 points, while the United Arab Emirates NBAD index closed at 2,384.83 points, up 0.3 percent. The Saudi NCFEI all-share index put on just 0.2, affected mainly by a sharp drop in nine-month profits of market leaders Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), BFA said.
Oman's MSM index fell 0.2 percent to close at 164.04 points, the Tunisian TUNINDEX closed at 1,274.50 points, a 0.3 percent decrease, and Qatar's CBQ index was down 0.6 percent to 255.09 points. A drop in cement and telecommunications stocks pulled Egypt's Hermes Financial Index down 1.5 percent to 5,713.35 points, while in Morocco, the CSE index closed at 586.92 points, a slide of 2.8 percent. — (AFP, Riyadh)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
