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Saudi shares rebound as Arab stock markets drop

KUWAIT CITY - Saudi shares rose slightly on Wednesday as other Arab stock markets closed lower in line with bourses in Europe and Asia, following two days of strong gains, on renewed concerns over the global financial crisis.

Performance was mixed, with some markets extending early losses and others clawing back some negative territory.

The Saudi stock market, the main Arab bourse, recovered its initial losses of eight percent to close up 0.5 percent on 6,863.15 points after the leading petrochemicals and banks sectors rebounded.

The Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI), which had rebounded 17.5 percent in the past two days, also ended the week up 11.4 percent but was still down 37.8 percent on the year.

The Saudi stock market opens Saturday through Wednesday, while other markets in the Gulf operate Sunday through Thursday.

Since Monday, the Saudi market recovered more than 55 billion dollars of capitalisation and now stands at close to 360 billion dollars.

Other Gulf market finished the day lower.

The Kuwait Stock Exchange, the second largest in the Arab world, finished down 0.64 percent at 11,719.70 points, after opening about two percent lower.

It had bucked the trend in other Gulf markets and dropped in the past two days in reaction to modest nine-month profits by a number of major banks.

The Dubai Financial Market, which surged more than 22 percent on Monday and Tuesday, extended early losses to close down 7.44 percent at 3,427.87.

Developer Emaar, the market leader, sank almost 10 percent, with the real estate sector down 9.85 percent.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, which also gained 15 percent over two days, also went from bad to worse, dropping 2.13 percent to close at 3,525.82.

The key real estate sector in the Emirati capital slumped 4.1 percent.

The tiny Muscat Securities market shed just 0.03 percent, while the Bahrain Stock Exchange was down down one percent. The Doha Securities Market finished trading 3.3 percent lower at 8,098.95 points.

"What happened today is a clear indication that the Gulf stocks are still affected by panic from the global crisis," said Walid Mohamed, financial analysts at Kuwait's Global Investment House.

"It is an indication that investor confidence has not been fully restored and it may take some time to recover. Investors are taking a wait-and-see attitude."

Governments in the oil-rich region have taken steps to support their financial systems after stock markets sustained huge losses last week.

On Tuesday, the UAE made 19 billion dollars available to local banks, bringing to 32 billion dollars the total pledged since the beginning of the crisis.

On Sunday, it had guaranteed deposits and savings at banks operating in the country, as well as interbank lending.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain have slashed interest rates, pledged tens of billions of dollars of liquidity to domestic banks, and eased lending restrictions.

Qatar also decided to buy between 10 percent and 20 percent of bank shares.

In Egypt, the CASE-30 stock index closed down 2.70 percent to fall below the 6,000-mark, after sliding 3.15 percent at the open.

The key index lost more than 20 percent of its value last week amid widespread global selling. Monday and Tuesday saw strong gains, as elsewhere in the region.

The most heavily traded stock, Orascom Construction Industries, fell 2.45 percent, while Orascom Telecom was down 4.5 percent.

The index has lost more than half its value in six months since hitting a high of 12,000 points in May.

The TA-25 index in Israel on a shortened trading day closed slightly up, by 0.71 percent, to reach 773.07 points, after trading was suspended for the previous two days for religious holidays.