Hormonal Hives

Last week's rally, brought about by advancing blue chips, continued well into early trading sessions before finally cooling off towards the weekend. Although a number of selected stocks championed the high volumes, daily value traded remained above JD3 million throughout the whole week, in the absence of any significant bloc deals - a clear sign of a general improvement in liquidity. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by more than two to one.

Earlier this week the Arab Bank (ARBK), which actually sparked the rally, announced that its net profit for the nine-month period ending September 30th improved by 5.4% to reach US$229 million. Despite this announcement, which came midweek, ARBK lost some of its earlier gains to close at JD205, or around JD8 lower from its week high.

The Housing Bank (THBK) and Export and Finance Bank (EXFB) experienced similar trends as their prices cooled off to JD2.31 and JD1.53, respectively, while Jordan Islamic Bank (JOIB) remained relatively stable. Bank of Jordan (BOJX), on the other hand, was the biggest winner among its peers as it gained some 16% to close at JD2.29. This came on the heals of a major boost by one of its subsidiaries, International Tobacco and Cigarettes (ITCC), which also made a similar advance for the week. Both stocks, however, managed to record an impressive year to date gain of over 120% - making them the biggest winners in 2001.

Pharmaceutical pair Dar Al Dawa for Development and Investment (DADI) and Arab Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (APHA) also made similar movements. Both stocks moved side by side throughout the whole week and achieved similar marginal gains. The same applied to aluminum and steel companies, as Arab Aluminum Industry (AALU), National Aluminum (NATA), Jordan Steel (JOST), and National Steel (NAST) all made synchronized movements for the week.

On the macroeconomic front, Jordan has embarked on yet another free trade agreement, this time with the oil rich state of Kuwait. The draft agreement, which was signed on Tuesday, stipulates that bilateral trade between both countries shall become duty free as soon as the agreement takes effect. As of August, the size of bilateral trade between both countries for the year amounted some JD24 million - around JD15 million of which were Jordanian exports to Kuwait.