A majority of Arab stock markets rebounded slightly this week following three weeks of losses over the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said on Saturday, October 6.
"Arab stock markets had mixed performances last week. Of the 12 markets, seven made slight gains while the remaining five dropped," BFA said in its weekly report. The Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon and UAE markets rose slightly, while the Palestine, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt bourses dropped.
Bahrain's stock market made the best gains, adding 2.1 percent to 1,711.03 points. The Palestinian Al-Quds (Jerusalem) index was 3.6 percent down at 157.51 points, posting the worst performance on the back of renewed Israeli military attacks.
"Arab markets made a relatively positive rebound last week after investor concerns over the impact of attacks in the United States subsided" despite a drop in oil prices, Bakheet said.
Ending three weeks of losses, Saudi Arabia's NCFEI all-shares index, the most capitalized in the Arab world, closed at 2,285.34 points, up just 0.3 percent. The Kuwait Stock Exchange shed a further 0.8 percent, closing at 1,597.70. Egypt's Hermes Financial index closed at 5,446.80, down 3.1 percent. Lebanon's BLOM index was up one percent, closing at 424.68 points over reports that some Arab investors have repatriated part of their capital from the United States.
Tunisia's TUNINDEX was down 0.6 percent at 1,267.80 points, while Morocco's CSE index was down 0.3 percent at 614.47 and Jordan's ASE index was up 1.2 percent at 152.13. The United Arab Emirates' NBAD index was edged up 0.1 percent to 2,511.50 points. Qatar's CBQ index closed at 255.85 points, up 1.7 percent on last week, and Oman's MSM index up by 0.5 percent at 167.41 points. — (AFP, Riyadh)
© Agence France Presse
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