Mid-Year Results Critical

The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) started off with soft movements keeping many stocks lulling at the previous week's positions. However, matters turned round on Tuesday as semi-annual results announcements began to seep through in local papers.

This helped the market obtain the boost it required allowing the AMI and ASMI to rise by 2.25% and 4.60%, respectively. Healthy mid-year results across the board will be a must for the market to remain in positive territory over the coming weeks.

The Jordan Kuwait Bank (JOKB) reached JD7.45 as it announced a 43% hike in its bottom line for the first six months of 2003 vis-à-vis the same period last year.

However, the stock settled back to JD7.30. The Cairo Amman Bank (CABK) continued to witness institutional buying which caused it to climb 20% to JD2.38. The Jordan Islamic Bank (JOIB) also experienced substantial growth in value, climbing 15% to JD1.57.

Investment and industrial zone companies took to centre stage as investors expect some of the privatisation and restructuring projects of Jordan's neighbour, Iraq, to filter through to local companies. Union Investment Corporation (UINV) and United Arab Investors (UAIC) both climbed by more than 20%, closing at JD1.57 and JD2.13, respectively, with UINV taking its place as the most active stock of the week with 2.7 million shares changing hands. Specialized Investment Compounds (SPIC) was content with a 15% rise to JD1.66.

Building materials were also on the agenda as Jordan Steel (JOST) and Jordan Cement Factories (JOCM) both advanced by 4% but for completely different reasons. JOST, which announced a pre-audited net income before tax of JD2.5 million, for the first half of the year, closed at JD2.86. JOCM, on the other hand, was privy to a bought of institutional buying which pushed it up to JD5.45.

Middle East Complex for Eng. Electronics & Heavy Ind. (MECE) is still responding to investors' appetites which is leading to healthy trading volumes. A little more than 2.6 million MECE shares changed hands this week as the stock settled at JD1.12, up 3%.