Jordan Times
Sunday, June 3, 2007
weekly analysis: Amman Stock
Exchange
AMMAN — The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) index rose last week closing at 5831.06
points, an increase of 1.68 per cent. Market capitalisation went up by 1.34 per
cent to JD22.6 billion.
The market was gradually declining during last week until Wednesday recording a
market index fall by 1.54 per cent. However the market bounced back on Thursday
as a result of an increase in the trading volume of heavyweight Arab Bank’s
share.
The indices of real estate and the diversified financial sector indices were the
only two to record losses last week, declining by 0.15 per cent and 0.31 per
cent respectively.
The services sector was the biggest gainer as its index gained 1.65 per cent by
the end of the week.
A total of 14.782 million shares exchanged hands, while the average daily
trading value rose by 3.56 per cent to JD35.31 million. Overall, advancers
outnumbered decliners as 70 companies out of 180 declined, while 96 advanced.
In terms of value traded by sector, real estate came in first place accounting
for 35.30 per cent of the total value traded followed by the industry sector
with 25.32 per cent and the services sector which accounted for only 19.05 per
cent.
The most actively traded shares last week were Int’l Arabian Develop. and
Invest, Contempro for Housing Projects and Middle East Complex For Engineering
and Electronics (MECE), with a combined value of JD14.145 million accounting for
19.16 per cent of the week’s total value traded.
Several block deals were executed during the week; the most significant were on
shares of Jordan Commercial Bank for JD10.04 million and Islamic Insurance for
JD8.39 million respectively.
Maen Al Nsour, executive director of the Jordan Investment Board, predicted the
investment volume by end of 2007 to reach JD2 billion as a result of investment
incentives offered by the government. The volume of investment increased by 150
per cent between 2005 and 2006, from JD750 million to JD1.8 billion
respectively.
According to the Amman Chamber of Industry, national exports dropped to JD624.1
million during the first quarter of 2007 compared to JD652.5 million during the
same period in 2006.
Jordan signed four agreements with foreign firms for oil exploration in the
Kingdom.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade announced a reduction of between 5.9 per cent
and 6.2 per cent in cement prices after the cancellation of the JD2/tonnne
cement tax. The announcement was followed by a decision from the Jordan Cement
Company decision lowering prices by JD2/tonne to a total of JD4.64/tonne.
Amman Bank and Jordan Post signed an agreement whereby the bank provides
financing to small projects in villages and remote areas lacking banking
services. The bank’s share price closed at JD3.14 down by 0.13 per cent.
Bank of Jordan received approval to establish a private bank in Syria under the
name of “Bank of Jordan – Syria”, holding 49 per cent of the capital of $30
million divided over 3 million shares valued around JD7 per share. The share
price of Bank of Jordan closed at JD2.55 up by 0.15 per cent whilst trading at a
forward P/E multiple of 10.41x.
The general assembly of Batelco Jordan agreed to lower its paid-up capital from
JD6.25 million to JD1.87 million to pay the company’s debts amounting to 70 per
cent of the capital. An increase will follow to 5 million JD/share. The
company’s share price closed at JD1.37 down by 0.01 per cent.
MESC Specialised of Saudi Arabia, Fujikura Limited of Japan and Jordan New Cable
Company announced the formation of a joint Jordanian-Saudi-Japanese cable
manufacturing company to produce medium-voltage power cables. The production
facilities will be located in the newly established Mafraq Special Economic
Zone. The paid-up capital of the company, known as MESC-Fujikura Cable/Jordan
Company, is JD20 million. The board of Jordan New Cable Company decided to take
19 per cent of the paid capital of the company. The share price of Jordan New
Cable closed unchanged at JD7.25 while trading at a forward P/E multiple of
9.6x.