Ammon News - weekly analysis

AMMAN - The general index of Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) regressed for the third straight week driven by plummeting global and regional indices. Amid substantially lower trading volumes, the ASE index closed last week at 2,552.41 points, a of 2.4 per cent over its previous week’s closing level.

We expect rising demand this week on selected shares after most companies announced third quarter results with a chance for an increase in trading volumes on speculative shares which suffered from falling share prices in the past few weeks.

Except for the insurance sector which increased by 0.5 per cent, all other indices recorded losses especially the diversified financial services sector whose index posted the largest of 4.4 per cent followed by real estate with a 2.7 per cent decline.

As for trading activity, 96.4 million shares exchanged hands leaving gains at 65 firms and losses at 102 entities out of 192 traded corporations.

In terms of value traded by sector, real estate came in first place accounting for 29.6 per cent of the total followed by the services sector with 24.3 per cent and then the diversified financial services which accounted for 21.4 per cent of the total value traded last week.

The most actively traded shares were those of Taameer Jordan Holdings, Amwal Invest and United Arab Investors with a combined value traded of JD14.7 million accounting for 14.6 per cent of the week’s total.

Several block deals were executed most significantly on shares of Al Ahlia Enterprises, Arab Jordanian Investment Bank and Amwal Invest with transaction values amounting to JD36.4 million JD1.6 million and JD1.5 million respectively.

Arab Bank Group reported a net income of JD330 million at the end of this year’s third quarter compared to JD461.4 million at the end of September 2008.

Jordan Commercial Bank announced a profit of JD3.3 million until the end of September 2009 compared to a loss of JD3.8 million during the same period ended September 2008.

Arab Corp posted a net loss of JD8.7 million during January-September 2009 compared to JD3.8 million during the same period last year.

Net profit of Specialised Investment Compounds plunged by 46.5 per cent to JD1.1 million during the first nine months of 2009 compared to JD3.1 million during the same period last year.

Profit generated by The Housing Bank for Trade & Finance fell by 45.1 per cent to JD48.8 million at the end of September 2009 compared to a JD89.1 million profit at the end of September 2008.

Arab Bank’s board of directors approved the chairman’s recommendation to appoint Ne’meh Al Sabbagh as executive general manager of the bank.

According to a report issued by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ), Jordanian expatriate remittances dropped 6.5 per cent during the first nine months of this year to JD1,892 million.

The Department of Land & Survey revealed that real estate trading during the first 10 months of 2009 dropped by 31 per cent to JD3.705 billion from its level during the same period of 2008.

The Jordanian government has renewed a previous decision to guarantee bank deposits without a ceiling until the end of 2010.

Disclaimer: The above information and opinions have been compiled in good faith from sources believed to be reliable, but Capital Investments makes no warranty as to the truth and accuracy of the information contained herein. All opinions expressed are not to be regarded as investment advice, and are only for informative purposes. Therefore, Capital Investments accepts no liability whatsoever for any loss of any kind arising out of the use of all or any part of this report.

* The Jordan TImes