Amman Stock Exchange weekly analysis 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) The general index of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) continued its upward trend for the second week in a row recording gains in each of last week's trading sessions.

Driven by rising demand on heavyweight stocks in the banking, mining, and services sectors, the index rose by 2.7 per cent closing last week at 2,701.4 points.

We expect some profit-taking activities in the first couple of sessions of this week's trading before the index regains its momentum and investors start to build new positions in selected stocks based on their expectations for 2009 first quarter results.

All sector indices recorded advanced with services posting the highest gain of 4.8 per cent.

As for trading activity, 187.1 million shares exchanged hands leaving gains at 109 firms and losses at 75 entities out of 200 corporations.

In terms of value traded by sector, real estate came in first place accounting for 41.7 per cent of the total value traded followed by the services sector with 18.3 per cent and then the diversified financial services which accounted for 17.3 per cent of the value traded last week.

The most actively traded shares were those of Ad Dulayl Industrial Park, Taameer Jordan Holdings and South Electronics Company with a combined value traded of JD64.8 million accounting for 19.7 per cent of last week's total value traded.

Only one block deal on the shares of Jordan Phosphate Mines was executed with a transaction value of JD5.2 million.

The general assembly of Winter Valley Tourism Investment Company approved increasing the firm's paid up capital to JD10 million.

The Jordan Securities Commission approved extending the public subscription for Amwaj Properties Company until April 2, 2009.

The general assembly of Euro Arab Insurance Group approved the distribution of cash dividends to shareholders at a rate of 10 per cent.

Jordan Commercial Bank's board of directors recommended to the general assembly the distribution of cash dividends to shareholders at a rate of 5 per cent.

The 4.2 million shares of United Group for Land Transport were listed on the second market, yet these shares will remain suspended from trading until the end of the imposed lock-up period.

The ASE decided to suspend trading in International Cards Company's shares effective March 25, 2009 due to ongoing discussions with strategic partners who are looking to buy significant stakes in the company.

The ASE decided to suspend trading in shares of Jordan Industrial Resources until the company finishes the capital reduction procedures that entail lowering the paid up capital from JD13.3 million to JD6.6 million and then increasing it to JD16.63 million through a private placement.

The ASE launched last week the new version of the electronic trading system NSC V900. The new version entailed introducing comprehensive changes to all the components of the electronic infrastructure of the stock exchange as well as other capital market institutions. Among these were the use of new servers, new communication networks, routing systems and new fiber optic networks.

In national economic news, Jordan and China signed a $2.9 million grant agreement to finance development projects in the Kingdom.

The level of "hotel occupancy" dropped by almost 30 per cent during the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year.