Amman Stock Exchange says its trading up by 65% in 2008

AMMAN, Dec. 31 (Chinese media) -- The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) has said that by the end of its yearly trading on Tuesday, its trading volume in the whole year reached 20.3 billion Jordanian dinars (about 28.7 billion U.S. dollars), daily newspaper The Jordan Times reported Wednesday.

The amount is 65 percent higher than the figure recorded at the end of 2007, an ASE statement was quoted as saying.

According to the statement, a total of 5.4 billion shares were traded and 3.8 million contracts were executed in 2008, which marks a 22 percent growth in traded shares and a 9 percent rise in the number of contracts.

The ASE price index, weighted by free float shares available for trading, closed on Tuesday at 2,758 points, 24.9 percent lower than the 3,675 points recorded at the end of 2007.

It closed at 6,243 points weighted by market value, 17 percent lower than the 7,519 points at the end of 2007.

Meanwhile, the ASE market capitalization stood at 25.4 billion dinars by the end of 2008, 13 percent lower than that at the end of 2007.

Non-Jordanian investments in 2008 grew by 303 million dinars compared to a 466-million-dinars increase in 2007.

The ASE said that the overall pretax profit of the companies listed on the first market went up by 37.8 percent during the January-September period, reaching 1,610 million dinars compared to 1,168 million dinars in the same period of 2007.

Despite the decline in the share prices this year, the ASE is considered one of the Arab bourse that were least impacted by the global financial crisis as the drop of share prices in most other Arab and international bourse was higher, said Jalil Tarif, the chief executive officer of the Amman Bourse.

According to the ASE, its trading of shares resume on Sunday, or Jan. 4, 2009.