AMMAN - Amman Stock Exchange's (ASE) general index dropped by 1 per cent closing last week at 2774.6 points. The bourse was affected by lower share prices of most strategic companies due to a wave of profit-taking activities amid relatively high trading volumes.
We expect investors to continue building new positions in selected shares based on expectations of fourth quarter results.
Except for the real estate and services sectors which rose by 2.57 per cent and 0.11 per cent respectively, all other indices regressed. The industrial sector registered the largest loss as its index declined by 2.82 per cent.
As for trading activity, 83.36 million shares exchanged hands leaving gains at 91 companies and losses at 90 firms out of 195 corporations.
In terms of value traded by sector, real estate came in first place accounting for 37.9 per cent of the total value traded followed by the services with 18.9 per cent and then the industrial sector which accounted for 15.9 per cent of the value traded last week.
The most actively traded shares were those of Al Tajamouat for Catering & Housing, Ad Dulayl Industrial Park, and Methaq for Real Estate Investment with a combined value traded of JD23.42 million accounting for 15.21 per cent of the total value traded.
Several block deals were executed last week most significantly were deals on Al Dawliah for Hotels & Malls and Al Faris National Company for Investment & Export with transaction values of JD3.11 million and JD0.95 million respectively.
The Amman Stock Exchange announced listing 3.42 million new shares of Al Entkaeya Company in the second market.
Al Ekbal for Printing and Packaging announced the establishment of Al Ekbal for Logistical Services and Paper Trading, a wholly owned subsidiary with a paid-up capital of JD30,000.
The Industrial Development Bank announced that it will hold an extraordinary general assembly meeting on January 29 to elect a new board of directors which will be delegated to request an Islamic bank licence from the Central Bank of Jordan.
The Jordan Securities Commission (JSC) approved the registration of 110 million new shares in the paid-up capital of ArabCorp and offering them to the company's shareholders through a public offering.
The JSC approved the registration of five million new shares in the capital of Al Faris Company and offering them to the company's shareholders through a public offering.
According to data issued by the Department of Statistics, the general industrial price index increased by 56.3 per cent during the first 11 months of 2008 compared to the same period of 2007 and the general industrial production index rose by 1.8 per cent during the same period of last year.
Another DoS data showed that the consumer price average declined by 2.3 per cent during December of 2008 as compared with the previous month. The total increase in the consumer price average during 2008 reached 14.9 per cent compared to 2007.
National exports surged by 27 per cent or JD514.8 million to JD2.40 billion at the end of 2008 compared to JD1.89 million in 2007.
© Jordan Times 2009
