While most Arab stock markets ended the week lower, Kuwait’s bourse continued rising closing 3.2 percent higher at 1,761.20 points. The surge in the KSE index—reaching its highest level in two and a half years—gained an astounding 29.6 percent since the beginning of the year. The continuous rise has been attributed to increased liquidity and strong financial results for the first half of the year, boosting investors confidence, according to AFP news agency.
While the Saudi bourse closed the week 1.2 percent higher at 2,422.59 points, due to positive financial results for H1 2001 in the banking and cement sectors, both the Jordanian and Emirates bourses rose a mere 0.1 percent to 142.76 points and 2,451.11 points respectively.
The week’s worst performer was the Lebanese bourse, as the BLOM index lost 2.9 percent to close at 479.24 points, due to the 4.7 percent drop in market-learder Solidere stocks. Poor results in the Telecom industry, Egypt’s Hermes Financial Index also ended the week 1.7 percent lower at 6,095.65 points. The Egyptian bourse has poorly performed in the first half of the year, having dropped approximately 23 percent since January.
Oman’s MSM index, for the first time in three weeks, ended 1.2 percent lower at 169.73 points. Tunisia’s Tunindex ended the week down at 1,318.68 points, whereas Morocco’s CSE index and the Jerusalem index in the Palestinian Territories shed 0.9 percent to 620.55 points.
Qatar’s CBQ index remained unchanged at 237.46 points, while Bahrain's BSE index fell merely 0.5 percent to 1,716.81 points. — (MENA Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
