The Palestinian and Egyptian bourses slumped in a mixed week for stock markets in the Arab world, Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) reported on Saturday, February 24. Out of 12 markets in the BFA's weekly survey of the region, six were up and the other six down.
The best performer of the week was the CBQ index in Qatar that gained 2.1 percent to climb to 208.75 points on the back of strong 2000 earnings for Qatar National Bank, the largest in the emirate, BFA said. Lebanon's BLOM index jumped 2.0 percent to 518.89 points, pushed up by sharp gains in the Beirut downtown reconstruction venture Solidere. The BLOM has, however, lost 12.5 percent since year start, the biggest slump in the Arab world.
Another big winner on the week was the CSE index in Morocco that climbed 1.9 percent to 695.43 points, going up for the fifth consecutive week as a result of government measures to revitalize the economy, BFA said. At the other end of the scale, the Jerusalem index of the Palestinians plunged 3.8 percent to close on 194.20 points as Palestinian telecoms shed 5.3 percent.
With investors concerned over the regional impact of the monetary crisis in Turkey, the Hermes Financial Index in Egypt was down 2.8 percent, closing the week on 6,962.00 points. Elsewhere in North Africa, Tunisia's Tunindex was down 1.9 percent, closing on 1,373.21 points.
In the Gulf, Bahrain's BSE index lost a hefty 1.8 percent to close on 1,603.48 points as Bahrain Telecoms continued to head southward following an announcement that it would be privatised and opened to foreign investors. The NBAD index in the Emirates lost 1.5 percent due to a slump in blue chips, closing on 2,527.37 points, and Saudi Arabia's NCFEI shed 0.9 percent to 2,234.50 points after a sharp fall in Al-Rajhi Banking and Investment Corp. (ARABIC).
Kuwait's KSE index, however, rose 0.8 percent to close on 1,367.90 points while the ASE index in Jordan rose a slight 0.3 percent to 138.07 points. The Omani MSM index was virtually unchanged, inching up 0.1 percent to 196.90 points. —(AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
