Amman - Arab stock markets rebounded this week, buoyed bya strong performance on Wall Street and encouraging reports about the US economy, financial analysts said Friday. However, they noticed that the modest gains reflected hesitation by investors to commit themselves to medium-term positions ahead of the week-long Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday that starts on Friday.
"I believe regional markets drew momentum this week from the gains of the global markets, but traders appeared to be reluctant to take new positions to avert losses that may be incurred in case world markets plummet during the long holiday," an Amman-based portfolio manager told the German press agency dpa.
He said Gulf stock markets were negatively affected by the drop in oil prices this week.
"However, we think that regional stocks are set to score fresh gains when trading resumes at the beginning of December, particularly when investors start to focus attention on annual profits," he added.
Saudi shares were volatile this week mainly due to falling oil prices, but rebounded during the last two days apparently in response to rallies on world markets.
The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) on the Arab world's largest stock exchange gained 0.6 per cent this week, closing at 6,355.82.
TASI is currently 32.3 per cent higher than the year's start, according to the weekly report of the Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG).
The report attributed the market's limited transactions and liquidity shortage this week to "the uncertainty felt by investors regarding developments that may occur in major world economies during the Eid holiday".
BIG expected Saudi stocks to rally after the Eid holiday, barring any sharp retreats on global markets.
The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) was marked by narrow fluctuations and thin trading due to what analysts described as shortage of liquidity and weak foreign demand.
The ASE all-share index gained 0.39 per cent, closing at 2,583, according to the market's weekly report.
Kuwait's KSE all-Share price index gained 2.7 per cent this week, closing at 6,934.
The United Arab Emirates shares lost ground apparently due to worries over fears that the Dubai government could default on its debt gripped investors, analysts said.
The Dubai World, the government investment company behind some of the emirate's most ambitious projects, said on Wednesday it was seeking to delay repayment on a tranche of its debt.
The benchmarks of the stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi declined 1.7 per cent and 0.5 per cent, to close respectively at 2,093 and 2,910.
Egypt's AGX30 index, measuring the performance of the market's 30 most active stocks, climbed 3.2 per cent this week, closing at 6,376 from last week's 6,181.
