Hands Clean - Atlas Market Brief Sep 26, 2002

Investors took the term "tread carefully" to an extreme this week, as daily trading value barely made it to the JD1 million mark. With bid-ask spreads not attracting neither buyers nor sellers, it took market makers up to Thursday to show a proper reaction aiding some of perennial favourites along the way. No more than 3.2 million shares traded, mostly in small cross-deals, consequently not offering much support to prices as they slipped. Both the AMI and ASMI fell by more than 1%.

Banks continued with their quiet streak with the Arab Bank (ARBK) ending the week unaltered at JD192. Nevertheless, the Philadelphia Investment Bank (PHIB) took a beating as controversy arose surrounding the recent changes in ownership. As a result, PHIB fell 14% to JD0.81. The PHIB controversy may result in another blow to the reputation of the banking sector which is still rearing form the February scandal.

The Jordan Press Foundation (PRES) published its semi-annual results this week. Both advertising revenues and net income saw an increase in the first sixth months of 2002 vis-à-vis the same period last year, with the former rising by JD0.5 million while the latter reached JD1.68 million, an hike of 67%. However, PRES saw very light volumes, retracting by 1% to JD9.05.

Similarly, the Jordan Phosphate Mines (JOPH) presented its 2002 mid-year results which showed a net profit of JD1.25 million in comparison with the JD10 million loss the company had posted for the first half of 2001. Nonetheless, both JOPH and Arab Potash (APOT) declined by 3%, to JD1.53 and JD4.15, respectively, as investors still await news regarding their pending privatization.

The pharmaceutical sector saw an interesting turn this week as Al-Razi Pharmaceutical Industries (RAZI) announced that its board of directors had approved the merger with the un-listed Jordanian Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Co.

Blue chips Arab Pharmaceutical Manufacturing (APHA) and Dar Al Dawa (DADI) did not witness heavy trading this week, closing at JD3.60 and JD4.70, respectively.