Beirut (APD) - Backed by a 4.47% gain on the week's last trading day, the Amman Stock Exchange Index (ASE) climbed 4.42% this week, to close at 7,584 points on Thursday up from 7,263 points at the end of the previous trading week.
After venturing to news records of more than 9,348 points in early January and trading at high values until mid February, the Jordanian bourse had been under the pressure of a "corrective retreat" between February 12 and March 5.
Analysts at several financial firms in the Hashemite Kingdom said in market reports Thursday that they expect the bourse to recuperate in the coming weeks and to revert back to a positive slope by mid 2006.
The ASE index is still 9.4 percent lower than the year's start of 8,380 points.
On Thursday traded value on the ASE reached JD 76.8 million on a volume of 14.3 million shares in 13,205 transactions.
The shares of 150 companies were traded on Thursday. The share prices of 132 companies rose, and those of 10 companies declined.
The top five gainers on Thursday were The Arab International Company for Investment & Education by 5.00%, The Real Estate & Investment Portfolio Co. by 5.00%, Arab Jordanian Insurance Group by 5.00%, Jordan International Insurance by 5.00%, and International Tobacco & Cigarettes by 5.00%.
The top five losers were the Arab Life & Accident Insurance by 5.01%, Building Development And Investment Co. by 4.95%, Al-Tajamouat for Touristic Projects Co by 4.91%, Al-Nisr Al-Arabi Insurance by 4.88%, and National Poultry by 4.26%.
On Tuesday, the Jordan Securities Commission issued new regulations, permitting listed companies to buy their treasury stocks without exceeding 5% of a company's paid-up capital. Companies are allowed to acquire treasury stocks over a period of 30 trading days provided that they hold them for between at least six months and at most 18 months, Jordan Finance and Investment Bank said in its weekly update.
These new regulations helped in the ASE recovery this week, the analysts added. [TS]
By Mirna Sleiman, APD Staff Writer in Beirut
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2006
