Beirut SE (One month)
Current year high: 1,200.49 Current year low: 705.56
> Review period: Closed: Feb19 – 1,099.12 Period change: 2.7%
BLOM Bank and developer Solidere’s two share classes drove the index gains, with improvements of 5.9%, 4% and 5%, respectively. On the downside of index movement, banks BEMO and BLC gave up 12.2% and 9.6%. Banks BLOM and Byblos reported full-year 2009 results to have improved 16.5% and 20% from 2008. Bank of Beirut posted a 15% profit improvement. Egyptian analyst house HC tipped BLOM and Byblos as buy opportunities and saw Bank Audi as a solid hold.
Amman SE (One month)
Current year high: 2,968.77 Current year low: 2,396.28
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 2,446.71 Period change: -3.1%
ASE traders might be hoping to strike solid desert rock and gain footing for a rebound. On Feb 18, the index fell to 2423.80; its lowest reading in over five years, according to local media. This was compounded by an even steeper fall toward the end of the month. No sector ended the review period with growth; insurance was best, at .025% percent down. Industry and services dropped 3.7% and 3.4%, respectively. Gainers came from the smaller stocks. Of the five firms with market cap of more than $1 billion, the strongest were Jordan Telecom and lender HBTF with gains of 0.9% and 0.3%.
Abu Dhabi SM (One month)
Current year high: 3,239.74 Current year low: 2,311.11
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 2,754.68 Period change: 4.6%
With the media birds of prey circling over Dubai, the ADX weathered more winds of challenge, but recorded a black zero in performance when compared with the last session in 2009. Adding 8.4% and 7.7%, the consumer goods and telecoms indices led the advancers, while the real estate index, down 2.5%, was the single losing sector. Etisalat, the only ADX firm with more than $10 billion in market cap, climbed 7.7%, and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, up 24.3%, was the big cap stock with the best performance. It was a bad month for driving instructors: Emirates Driving Co plunged 18.7%.
Dubai FM (One month)
Current year high: 2,373.37 Current year low: 1,490.02
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 1,623.93 Period change: 2.1%
Another dismal month for the region’s most troubled performer for the year to date, down by 10% in 2010. Volatility topped 23% and the P/E ratio was a mere 9.15x. Real estate and utilities sub-indices ended the period lower. With the exception of a high-flying materials index, transport and banking were the cheeriest sectors. Negative news got the most press and a new oil find, trumpeted out as good news for the emirate, was met with skepticism. It seems the vultures with trust issues outnumber the noble falcons circling the Burj Khalifa.
Kuwait SE (One month)
Current year high: 8,371.10 Current year low: 6,391.50
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 7,418.90 Period change: 5.6%
February’s trading supplied almost all of the KSE’s gains since the start of 2010. Real estate was flat. Insurance was the only sector to dip into the red during the review period. Up by over 9% each, food and banking indices represented the sectors that flavored the month positively. KSE heavy Zain Group said farewell to its visionary CEO, Saad al-Barrak, then announced a very profitable sales plan for its African assets. The latter move fueled a 44.4% share price gain for the stock in the review period.
Saudi Arabia SE (One month)
Current year high: 6,568.47 Current year low: 4,130.01
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 6,479.15 Period change: 3.6%
The Tadawul index of the SSE closed the review period up 5.8% on 12 months ago. The upside outlier was agriculture, at plus 5.3%. The investment sector fared worst at -1.2%. Weqaya Takaful, a firm that started trading last June, dropped 22%. Kingdom Holding was the top advancer, appreciating 55.6%. Insurance debutants, Buruj Cooperative and Gulf General, put in shooting star performances gaining 258% and 150%, respectively, when compared with their February trading starts.
Muscat SM (One month)
Current year high: 6,798.17 Current year low: 4,575.99
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 6,798.17 Period change: 4.1%
While not in the least likely to be a psychologically significant barrier, the Feb 21 close marked a new 12-month high for the MSM and the benchmark index’s strongest reading since November 2008. The MSM is the best performing GCC stock exchange for the year to date; its gain of 6.74% put it almost one percentage point ahead of the Saudi Stock Exchange The industrial index was the MSM’s lead performer in February, whereas the banking index trailed the general index for most of the period, closing about half a percentage point below the benchmark.
Bahrain SE (One month)
Current year high: 1,681.28 Current year low: 1,413.28
> Review period: Close: Feb 21 – 1,513.45 Period change: 2.4%
Not a traditional contender in the Winter Olympics, the BSE seemed to try for some downhill-uphill action around the first week of the Vancouver Games before regaining a solid percent of index values. Of sector indices, insurance, banking, and services outperformed the general index last month; investments stalled and industry tanked. Top gainer of the period was Bahrain Kuwait Insurance, up 20%. Arab Banking Co. dived 23.2% in the review period. Gulf Finance House, the Sharia-compliant financial firm, reported a 2009 net loss of $728 million, mostly from non-cash provisions.
Doha SM (One month)
Current year high: 7,624.45 Current year low: 4,230.19
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 6,950.58 Period change: 5.98%
February saw redemption from the fall of January for the QSE index but still a drop of -0.1%, year to date. All sector indices were positive in February, with banking and industry gaining 7% and 6%, respectively. Services and insurance trailed slightly with gains of 3.3% and 3%, respectively. Market cap leader Ezdan Real Estate edged up just under 1% and Industries Qatar climbed 4.9%. Market watchers expect Qatar will be a good bet going forward, in anticipation of solid economic growth.
Tunis SE (One month)
Current year high: 4,743.05 Current year low: 3,059.18
> Review period: Closed: Feb 19 – 4,681.53 Period change: 0.8%
Compared with December and January’s relentless ascent, the Tunindex checked its pace in February but remained the region’s best climber. The exchange’s three top gaining companies this month made for an eclectic manufacturing mix — Electrostar, an assembler and distributor of household electric and electronic goods, rose 24.7%; tire maker STIP advanced 21.7%. Third in the group with 21.1% was cement maker Ciments de Bizerte, which, until Feb 3, had been on a prolonged slide from its trading debut last October.
Casablanca SE (One month)
Current year high: 11,729.86 Current year low: 9,99.756
> Review period: Closed: Feb 19 – 11,053.55 Period change: 1.1%
Market cap leader Maroc Telecom traded sideways during the review period, ending on a slight downward bias. Leading bank Attijariwafa maintained an overall positive trajectory, climbing 5.2%. The exchange’s price to earnings reached 18.6x, making it the most expensive equities market among the Middle East and North African markets tracked on these pages. The Damascus Stock Exchange, which celebrates its first birthday in March and is not currently part of this markets roundup, reported a still higher P/E ratio of 21.2x.
Egypt CASE (One month)
Current year high: 7,249.55 Current year low: 3,517.33
> Review period: Closed: Feb 21 – 6,708.45 Period change: -0.7%
Egypt sees itself soaring with 2010 economic growth well above 5%, but the EGX 30 fell into a glide in the second part of February. EGX volatility of 22.2% was higher than other bourses in the region. The top double-digit gains were mainly seen by manufacturers, including chemicals and steel producers. Telecom Egypt and Orascom Telecom Holding, the bourse’s number two and three by market cap ended the period 6.8% and 8.1% higher, respectively. Top dog Orascom Construction Industries lost 6.2%.
