Atlas ASE Market Brief 12 July 2001

Amman Stock Exchange (ASE)

Weekly Commentary (8th - 12th July).

Let the Scores, Begin

The government has finally taken action on an IMF sponsored hike in fuel prices. The increase, which covered only a few basic fuel products, ranged between 4% and 15%. According to government sources, the initial program proposed a 30% to 40% increase, but officials resisted such drastic measures. The government also claimed that overall production prices should not increase, because electricity fuels were excluded from the rise.

The Atlas Market Index (AMI) closed slightly higher only after a falling week, while investors preferred to adopt a "wait and see" approach as companies are getting ready to release their performance reports for the first half of the year. Decliners outnumbered the advancers by around four to three, while 22 remained unchanged. Unlike previous weeks, trading activity was lower as a mere 4.6 million shares changed hands in deals around JD6.5 million.

As usual, the biggest deals were executed on only a number of stocks such as the Arab Bank (ARBK), which climbed as high as JD170 before closing slightly lower at JD169.5. Jordan Steel (JOST) witnessed heavy trading, as 250,000 of its shares were exchanged in a single bloc deal on Wednesday; it closed at JD1.13, up 6% for the week. Jordan Kuwait Bank (JOKB) made slight gains as bloc deals were executed on its shares throughout the week before at JD2.15.

Only ten days into the year's second half, Jordan Investment Trust (JOIT) is the first listed company to make public its semi annual results for 2001. It announced pre-tax earnings of JD0.826 million, up from about JD34,000 over the same period last year primarily from interest income. According to the company, these results beat their initial expectations by some 20%.

Keeping with increased transparency, the Jordan Securities Commission (JSC) has halted a prominent ASE broker after three major complaints were filed against the violating company. The Financial Investment House Company, which ranked second in terms of market share, executed major unsolicited deals and also violated several precautionary measures as set forth by the JSC.