Beirut SE (one month)
Current Year High: 1,629.74 Current Year Low: 705.56
The BLOM Stock Index tracking share prices on the Beirut Stock Exchange closed the March 27 session at 1047.92 points, 20 points lower than its close on February 27. The BSI is down 11 percent from the start of 2009. In the review period, eight sessions to close with a gain were outnumbered by 12 sessions that saw the market drop. However, all trading sessions ended with index fluctuations of less than one percent, except for March 25 when the index slipped 1.44 percent, pulled down by six percent and 3.2 percent price losses in the two share classes of real estate firm Solidere when a substantial amount of shares were offered for sale at a discount to the previous close. In Beirut, analysts assumed that this sudden drop in the share price of Solidere was triggered by an individual trader’s need for cash. In fiscal news, the Lebanese Republic announced that it successfully swapped $2.1 billion in Eurobonds with maturity in 2009 for longer-term bonds, which will mature in 2012 and 2017. As the elections for the Lebanese parliament are taking more and more hold of public attention, the BSE will likely be under the spell of the elections in the second quarter.
Amman SE (one month)
Current Year High: 5,043.72 Current Year Low: 2,550.70
The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) rode the bandwagon of market gains to close the March 29 session four percent higher at 2,721.48 points when compared with the close at the end of February. The positive sessions in March cut the ASE Index’s contraction in the first quarter of 2009 down to 1.3 percent. For the first quarter of 2009, the insurance sector index was the best performer on the ASE with a 16.3 percent gain. Banking took the other end of the share price spectrum, weakening 17 percent from the start of 2009. Banking was also the only sector to underperform the general index in March whereas the services index, up 7.4 percent, accounted for the month’s strongest gain. Real estate sector companies attracted significant action from traders while the undisputed top share price gainer was the specialized mortgage insurance firm Darkom Finance and Investments Co. The share price of the company, which had started operations in mid 2008, rose 68 percent in March.
Abu Dhabi SM (one month)
Current Year High: 5,148.49 Current Year Low: 2,136.64
The larger of the UAE securities markets closed at 2,545.65 points on March 29 in a second consecutive month of gains, achieving 7.1 percent from the end of February. Gains rolled nicely in almost every session starting March 18 and the momentum flattened at the end of the review period as attention shifted towards first-quarter result expectations, which are mixed. The energy and telecommunications sub-indices led the market up with gains of 19.5 percent and 18 percent, whereas the construction index lagged behind and couldn’t catch the up-train. Construction ended 26 percent lower, however, real estate gained 8.3 percent. The strongest gainer in the period was the new health insurance specialist, Green Crescent Insurance Co; whereas the insurance sector index was flat, debutant Green Crescent added 38 percent in its first two trading sessions when compared with the issue price. Building materials company Arkan was the market’s biggest loser in March. The scrip, which had dropped about 55 percent in the first half of the month, made good some of its losses in the second half but ended the review period 37.8 percent lower.
Dubai FM (one month)
Current Year High: 5,859.57 Current Year Low: 1,433.14
The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) closed at 1,604.71 points on March 29, representing a gain of just under three percent in the month of March. The trading range fluctuated between an intra-month low of 1,490 and a high of 1,623 points. The utilities sub-index was the strongest performer on the DFM but most sectors moved in positive territory, except for banking which ended the review period 1.6 percent lower and materials which lost five percent. When compared with the end of 2008, however, materials, investments, and real estate are all still quite deep in the hole, with losses ranging from 14 percent to 40 percent. Dubai Islamic Bank and sharia-compliant insurer Salama Group were the best performers of the month, moving up 33 percent and 29.5 percent, respectively. Drake and Skull International, the construction group which started trading last month on the DFM after waiting with its entry as long as possible since its initial public offering in July 2008, was not so lucky. The new stock was the DFM’s biggest loser in March, ending the period 33 percent lower from its issue price of 1 AED per share.
Kuwait SE (one month)
Current Year High: 15,654.80 Current Year Low: 6,391.50
The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) Index ended the review period at 6,739.70 points on March 29, representing a climb of more than 5.4 percent from the last session in February. March performance mitigated the unfriendly picture of the first quarter, but the year-to-date loss at 13.4 percent remains one of the steeper slides on Arab bourses in 2009. By respectively adding 20 percent, 13 percent and 12 percent, the food, banking, and investment sub-indices were on the forefront of the bourse’s uptrend in March and most other sector indices moved range bound with the general index, except for insurance, which weakened in early March and stayed at the bottom during the review period. While the KSE still saw 12 companies lose between a fifth and half of their share prices in the month of March, this was more than countered by the number of gainers where 34 companies appreciated in share price by 20 percent or more — as biggest gainer, real estate company Massaleh almost doubled its share price, whereas Gulf Insurance Company had a second month of turmoil and ended 49.4 percent lower. Political worries weighed on the KSE as discussions of an economic stimulus package were juxtaposed with resignation of cabinet and dissolution of parliament.
Saudi Arabia SE (one month)
Current Year High: 10,291.47 Current Year Low: 4,264.52
The Saudi Stock Exchange (TASI) closed at 4,752.32 points on March 25, up 8.39 percent from the last close in February. It ended the first quarter with a loss of 1.05 percent when comparing the March 25 close with the last close in 2008 and with a loss of 5.87 percent when compared with the close on the first trading day. The difference in TASI performance between the two methods of defining the year-to-date period in 2009 is exceptionally wide which is a reminder of the volatility of the trading, making it more interesting to check other vitality stats. The TASI trading volume in the first quarter represented close to 75 percent of total GCC trading volume, a dominant proportion of regional trading activity and substantially higher than the Saudi bourse’s 44 percent share in total GCC market cap at the end of Q1, according to Zawya financial data. Led by three insurers and debutant Ethihad Atheeb, the share prices of 24 stocks rose by more than 25 percent apiece, whereas nine stocks shed a quarter of their wealth or more. Overall, gainers outnumbered losers by healthy margins in the quarter, but the ratio in March was about equal.
Muscat SM (one month)
Current Year High: 12,109.10 Current Year Low: 4,223.63
The only market that suffered a drop in its general index in March 2009 was Oman. Whereas it had held up better than other GCC exchanges in February, the Muscat Securities Market Index closed at 4,722.95 points on March 29, representing drops of 2.69 percent on the month and of 13.2 percent on the year. The industry sub-index made an upward escape in the March review period and closed 9.2 percent higher; banking and services did not manage to cross into positive territory. Losers outnumbered gainers four to three in the review period from February 26, but it is not to be overlooked that the majority of share price drops were contained in the bracket of less than 10 percent. Market cap leader Omantel, whose CEO resigned at the end of March, suffered a 14.4 percent contraction in share price in the review period. While the company had reported positive results for 2008, its Q4 net profit declined by two thirds due to a difficult time at its subsidiary in Pakistan. Banking heavyweight Bank Muscat showed a slight share price gain at 1.4 percent in March.
Bahrain SE (one month)
Current Year High: 2,902.68 Current Year Low: 1,572.19
Of the six GCC bourses that showed gains in the month of March, the Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) Index added the least, with a 0.85 percent index improvement to 1,590.92 points at its March 29 close when compared with the last session in February. The BSE has a negative performance for the first quarter, with a drop of 11.2 percent since the start of the year. Banking (-18.5 percent) and services (-13.5 percent) were the sectors with significant underperformance in the first three months of 2009. In March, however, the previously oversold banking index made a contrarian move and outperformed the general index by more than five percentage points, with investments (+1.1 percent) a distant second place in up-moving sectors. As the financial world is awaiting the next round of global restructuring talks, this time by the G20, the tiny Bahraini bourse is as good an example as any for the uncertainty of markets under the thumb of global influences. While a pessimistic band of dark augers, the region’s investment houses described recent upswings in developed markets as bear market rallies and not as a swing into recovery. One may be wise not to exclude any possibilities, not even positive surprises later in 2009.
Doha SM (one month)
Current Year High: 12,627.32 Current Year Low: 4,230.19
Investors on the Doha Stock Market (DSM) apparently exhausted their capacity for pessimism and, at least for the review period from February 26 to March 29, they made the stocks shine on the DSM. The general index added net 660 points over the period to its close at 5,098.51 points on March 29, representing a GCC-leading gain of 14.9 percent even as profit taking occurred in the last session of the review period. Volatility on the DSM was significant, at 48 percent according to Zawya. Industrial and banking outperformed the general index, while the insurance index underperformed. Notably, many large caps were in demand and gainers included all five of the strongest companies by market cap: Industries Qatar (+30.9 percent), Qatar National Bank (+37.7 percent), Qatar Telecom (+16.4 percent), Qatar Islamic Bank (+8.9 percent) and Ezdan Real Estate (+39.7 percent). Other strong gainers were Ahli Bank and Qatar Commercial Bank. The banking sector received positive news at the beginning of March as the government took measures to infuse liquidity into banks through a decision to purchase investment portfolios held by banks on the DSM.
Tunis SE (one month)
Current Year High: 3,418.13 Current Year Low: 2,685.76
Adding 29.5 points from February 26 to March 27 means that the Tunindex of the Tunisian Stock Exchange benefited only with a one percent gain from the positive developments, which pushed the Nasdaq for the first time this year into the black on March 26 and let most GCC securities markets partly recover from their losses in the first ten or eleven weeks of the year — but then the TSE was already moving up in the first two months of 2009 so that its status at the end of Q1 is 6.6 percent up year-to-date. Battery manufacturer Assad was the market’s top advancer in March with a 16 percent increase in its share price. Market cap heavyweights Poulina Holding and Banque de Tunisie recorded moderate drops in their share prices, weakening by 2.3 percent and 1.1 percent, respectively.
Casablanca SE (one month)
Current Year High: 14,878.30 Current Year Low: 9,405.86
Buying moods from earlier in 2009 faded on the Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSA) in March and the Index retreated 5.3 percent to close at 10,628.29 points on March 27. The index slipped especially in the period between March 16 and 24 before adding about 200 points to the end of the review period. For the year to date, the weaker performance in March means that the CSE Index neared the end of the first quarter at a 3.25 percent lower reading than at the start of 2009. In news relating to listed companies, the Moroccan government announced the licensing of a new mobile operator. The third GSM license went to a company called Wana, part of the Omnium North Africa conglomerate. Maroc Telecom, the market cap leader on the CSE, saw its share price under pressure after the announcement and ended March 4.8 percent lower. Maroc Telecom formally announced its 2008 results on March 23, reporting an increase in net profits of almost 19 percent.
Egypt CASE (one month)
Current Year High: 11,935.67 Current Year Low: 3,389.31
The Egyptian bourse, long seen as the region’s exchange with the strongest alignment to international markets, in March boomed more than any other Arab securities market. The EGX 30 Index closed the March 29 session at 4,332.56 points, signifying a 20.5 percent increase from the last session in February. However, it is a reminder of how steeply the EGX fell in the first two months of 2009 that the index is still 5.74 percent down from the start of the year. With only seven companies seeing their share prices go deeper in the red in March, the positive mood on the exchange was broad even as its capability of endurance cannot be judged as yet. Two companies in the market’s medium to small size range more than doubled their share prices in March but more significantly, the market cap heavyweights Orascom Telecom Holding and Orascom Construction Industries respectively added 43.4 percent and 27 percent and were way up there in the gainers together with a diverse spectrum of companies from real estate to manufacturing.
