AMMAN - The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) index continued its upward trend ending last week at 7,158.19 points, a rise of 2.49 per cent. Market capitalisation increased by 2.35 per cent to 27.723 billion.
All sector indices recorded gains, the largest of which was 6.07 per cent posted by service companies. Banking and industrial sectors came at 3.46 per cent and 2.78 per cent respectively amid relatively high trading volumes.
As for trading activity, 83.24 million shares exchanged hands, while the average daily trading value dropped by 14.1 per cent to JD44.013 million. Overall, advancers outnumbered decliners as 107 companies out of 191 advanced, while 72 declined.
In terms of value traded by sector, services came in first place accounting for 28.7 per cent of the total value traded followed by the industrial sector with 21.7 per cent and then banking which accounted for 18.9 per cent of the value traded.
The most actively traded shares last week were Jordan Industrial Resources, Transport and Investment Barter Co. and First Jordan Investment with a combined value traded of JD54.91 million accounting for 25 per cent of the week's total value traded.
Several block deals were executed, most significant of which were deals on shares of Investors and Eastern Arab for Industrial and Real Estate Investments, Tameer Jordan and Real Estate Investment with transaction values of JD2.6 million, JD2.3 million and JD1.7 million respectively.
The projected budget deficit after grants for the fiscal year 2008 was put at JD724 million, JD108 million higher than estimated in 2007. This is the largest deficit in ten years.
The investment volume of companies registered at the Ministry of Industry and Trade during the past 11 months of this year declined by 17 per cent to JD854 million from JD1,030 million during the same period last year.
According to the monthly report issued by the Comptroller of Companies, the number of registered companies also went down by 7 per cent to 7,526 from 8,118 companies. During the January through November period of this year, Iraqi investments in the Kingdom ranked first, accounting for around JD62 million. Bahraini investments ranked second at around JD20 million whereas investment from the United Arab Emirates were in third place, amounting to around JD15 million.
A first of its kind loan agreement was signed in favour of Zara Investments for JD30 million. Arab Bank Group was the leading bank, supported by Jordan Kuwait Bank, Union Bank, Cairo Amman Bank and Arab Jordan Investment Bank. The share price of Arab Bank dropped by 0.65 per cent to close JD28.90 while trading at a forward P/E multiple of 19.22x.
Jordan New Cable Company signed a JD8.16 million contract to supply electrical cables and wires to the Saudi Electricity Company starting in January 2008. The company's share price rose by 0.82 per cent to close at JD7.35 while trading at a forward P/E multiple of 9.8x.
Royal Jordanian (RJ) signed an agreement with the General Trade Union of Air Transport and Tourism Employees to distribute 8 per cent of total shares to its employees. The shares will be distributed at a ceiling of JD20 million.
The Investment Unit of the Social Security Corporation presented a proposal to purchase 10 per cent of Royal Jordanian equity and similarly discussed with the government the possibility of buying an additional 11.6 per cent of Jordan Telecom Group's shares.
Arab East Investment Company showed interest in buying 26 million shares of Real Estate Development Company, a Jordanian unit of Kuwait's Global Investment House, by subscribing to the company's capital increase shares.
Jordan Phosphate Mines Company signed a partnership agreement with Indian Farmers Fertilisers Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCo) to build a full-fledged plant for the production of phosphoric acid at Al Eshidiya mine with a cost of $570 million. The company's share price rose by 17.18 per cent to close at JD10.37.
© Jordan Times 2007
