Jordan Times
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Amman Stock Exchange
AMMAN — Delay in announcing midyear results of public shareholding companies and concerns over the decline of Union Investment Corporation’s share price to its lowest levels in three years caused the stock exchange index to drop last week by 1.07 per cent, to 5,717.99 points.
Market capitalisation dropped to JD22.2 billion, down by 1.02 per cent for the week.
Indices of all sectors fell. The banking, diversified financial services and real estate sectors were the biggest losers as their indices dropped by 1.57 per cent, 1.34 per cent and 1.29 per cent respectively by the end of the week.
As for trading activity, a total of 71.6 million shares exchanged hands, while the average daily trading value decreased by 16.9 per cent to JD32.9 million. Overall, decliners outnumbered advancers as 118 companies out of 186 declined, while 54 advanced.
In terms of value traded by sector, real estate came in first place, accounting for 23.5 per cent of the total followed by the service sector with 21.2 per cent and then the banking sector which accounted for 19.2 per cent of the value traded last week.
The most actively traded shares were Jordan Industrial Resources, Union Investment Corporation, and Jordan Loan Guarantee Corporation with a combined value traded of JD25.98 million accounting for 15.8 per cent of the week’s total value traded.
Several block deals were executed, most significantly were deals on shares of Jordan Kuwait Bank, Tameer Jordan and Contempro for Housing Projects with transaction values of JD9.1 million, JD3.5 million and JD1.5 million respectively.
Statistics published by the Jordan Investment Board showed that projects registered with a capital exceeding JD5 million, surged by 471 per cent during the first 6 months of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006.
Revenue of the Income and Sales Tax Department reached JD941 million during the first 5 months of 2007, a 20.9 per cent increase over the JD778 million during the same period in 2006.
Public debt stood at JD7,648 million by the end of May 2007, a 1.3 per cent decline from the outstanding balance at the end of 2006. External debt was down to JD4,868.1 million from JD4,922.5 million and domestic debt stood at JD2,780 million compared to JD2,830 million.
The Saudi-based Savola Group is expected to take 5-10 per cent equity in Tameer Jordan. Besides opening negotiations between the two firms, a memorandum of understanding included launching an investment partnership between the two sides, which will focus on the development of real estate projects in addition to joint projects in Saudi Arabia and abroad. Savola is one of Saudi’s leading industrial companies with a capital of SR4 billion. The share price of Tameer closed the week at 2.46, down by 0.4 per cent.
Jordan Steel’s midyear net income before tax surged by 48 per cent to JD3.6 million at the end of June compared to JD2.45 million for the same period in 2006. The share price of the company closed the week at JD3.38, down by 1.17 per cent.
Darkom, Jordan’s first housing loan insurance company capitalised at JD10 million, announced the official commencement of its operations in Jordan.
Capital Bank of Jordan announced ongoing negotiations with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The deal comprises an IFC investment of up to $50 million, consisting of an equity investment of up to 9 per cent in the bank’s common share capital, and a long term loan of up to $20 million. The bank’s share price closed unchanged at JD2.