(AFP, RIYADH) – Egypt's bourse dived more than five percent for a second week in a row in a mixed week for Arab stock markets, Bakheet Financial Advisers (BFA) reported Saturday.
The Riyadh-based investment specialists said the best performer in its weekly review of 12 Arab markets was Jordan's ASE index, which rose 2.6 percent to 138.66 points thanks to the banking sector, notably the Arab Bank, which surged 5.8 percent.
The Hermes Financial Index in Egypt lost 5.5 percent to 8,177.32 points, after a 6.6 percent fall the previous week, due to a slide in blue chips as investors fear poor financial results for the first half of 2000, BFA said.
Hit by the failure of the US-brokered Camp David peace summit, the Jerusalem index of the Palestinian territories weakened 2.2 percent to close the week on 255.83 points.
Among the other losers, Morocco's CSE index closed down 1.2 percent to 696.23 points as banking and cement shares slumped.
Oman's MSM index, in decline since April, fell to 204.71 points, down 0.9 percent and 18.2 percent on the year. The MSM has now reached its lowest level since the end of July 1997.
The KSE index in Kuwait was slightly down, slipping 0.3 percent to a three-month low of 1,381.60 points.
At the other end of the scale, the NBAD index in the United Arab Emirates was up 1.6 percent, closing on 2,637.94 points, due to buying pressure after several months of decline.
Climbing to its highest level since September 1992, the NCFEI all-shares index in Saudi Arabia gained 0.9 percent, closing on 2,173.99 points, after blue chips reported higher first-half profits.
Qatar's CBQ index was up 0.6 percent and closed on 213.60 points, while the BSE in Bahrain recovered slightly to 1,905.36 points, up 0.2 percent, after having hit its lowest value in almost three years.
The Tunindex in Tunisia was up one percent, closing on 1,406.40 points, on the strength of positive economic indicators, while Lebanon's BLOM index edged up 0.1 percent to 592.10 points.
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
