The Palestinian and Moroccan bourses made the best showing in a mixed week for Arab stock markets, Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) reported on Saturday, February 3. The worst performer of the week was Lebanon's BLOM index which lost 4.1 percent to close on 560.41 points as market leader Solidere, which is in charge of Beirut's downtown reconstruction, plunged 5.7 percent, the Riyadh-based BFA said.
The Jerusalem index of the Palestinians gained another three percent and closed on 203.74 points, following a 4.6 percent surge the previous week, to recover more ground after a four-month decline since the outbreak of clashes with Israel. Another strong performer was Morocco's CSE index which gained 2.8 percent to close on 631.96 points. The advance, which follows two years of losses on the CSE, was spurred on by "possible government support to the market and the attraction of low-level stock prices," BFA said.
In Egypt, the Hermes Financial Index rose 1.9 percent to 7,698.83 points after a central bank announcement to impose controls on exchange rates against the dollar. Kuwait's KSE index was up 0.7 percent, closing on 1,339.80 points, despite a political crisis which gripped the emirate after the cabinet resigned. The NBAD index of the Emirates gained a slight 0.6 percent to close on 2,550.93 points.
Bahrain's BSE index edged up 0.4 percent to 1,748.10 points, while the Tunindex in Tunisia inched forward to 1,410.02 points, up 0.3 percent. Out of 12 markets in BFA's weekly review, five sustained losses. Oman's MSM declined 1.7 percent to 193.34 points due to selling pressure after the government refused to step in and inject capital for a second time since last year, BFA said. The highest capitalized in the Arab world, the NCFEI index in Saudi Arabia, edged down 1.1 percent to 2,271.21 points "due to declining profit announcements by local banks for the fourth quarter of 2000," said the investment specialists.
Qatar's CBQ index was a bit down by 0.8 percent, closing on 207.39, while the ASE index in Jordan slipped to 136.74 points, down 0.4 percent. —(AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
