Jordan Times
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Amman Stock Exchange: weekly
analysis
AMMAN - The index of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) dropped by 0.16 per cent
closing last week at 7,146.52 points. The decline was influenced by the lower
price of Arab Bank’s heavy weight share value, despite the rise of most blue
chip share prices.
Market capitalisation stood at JD27.67 billion, down by 0.2 per cent for the
week.
Services and industry were the only sectors that gained last week as their
indices, increased by 3.69 per cent and 2.78 per cent respectively. The real
estate sector recorded the biggest loss as its index fell by 1.83 per cent.
As for trading activity, 82.53 million shares exchanged hands pushing up the
average daily trading value by 6.8 per cent to 47.015 million. Overall,
decliners outnumbered advancers as 63 companies out of 195 advanced, while 120
declined.
In terms of value traded, by sector, services came in first place accounting for
34.5 per cent of the total value traded, followed by industry with 18.9 per cent
and then diversified financial services which acquired 16.9 per cent of the
value traded last week.
The most actively traded shares were United Arab Investors, Portfolio Management
and Investment Services for Clients (Amwal Invest) and Al Tajamouat for
Touristic Projects with a combined value traded of JD29.54 million accounting
for 12.56 per cent of the total value traded.
Several block deals were executed last week, most significant of which were
deals on shares of United Arab Investors and Jordan Phosphate Mines, with
transaction values of JD16.36 million and JD1.605 million respectively.
The Ministry of Finance lowered the volume of grants and assistance for the
current year by 39.7 per cent from JD574 million estimated in the budget to
reach JD346 million after the reestimate.
Local revenues and foreign grants amounted to JD3,239.7 million during the first
10 months of 2007, JD377.8 million or 13.2 per cent higher than the JD2861.9
million during the same period in 2006.
Data issued by the Department of Statistics showed a 1.08 per cent increase in
the consumer price average during November 2007 compared with October 2007
following a relative stability of prices since the end of 2006.
The ASE announced the listing 84.373 million shares of Royal Jordanian Airlines
(RJ) in the first market as of Monday, December 17-2007 under the trading code
RJAL. The listing followed a government announcement that the price of the
59,905,079 shares floated in an initial public offering (IPO) has been set at
JD3.08 per share noting that the shares carry a nominal value of JD1 and
represent 71 per cent of total issued share capital.
Arab Bank and AB Capital, its investment banking subsidiary, have been appointed
as financial advisors to a consortium consisting of five Taiwanese and Saudi
companies. The Saudi Masader/Taiwan consortium aims to present a competitive bid
to the Water and Electricity Company of Saudi Arabia for the Ras Az Zour
project, the largest independent power and water project to be undertaken in
Saudi Arabia. The share price of Arab Bank dropped by 2.73 per cent closing last
week at JD28.11while trading at a forward P/E multiple of 18.7x.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade approved increasing the capital of the
Industrial Development Bank to JD50 million instead of JD24 million. The share
price of the bank dropped by 2.48 per cent closing last week at JD3.14 while
trading at a forward P/E multiple of 7.1x.