Amman - Arab stock markets showed mixed performance this week as investors appeared skeptical over the annual results of listed firms in the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis, analysts said Friday.

"I believe most investors prefer to take a wait-and-see approach at this juncture when the world financial crisis keeps unfolding and listed firms prepare to announce their annual results early in January," Wajdi Makhamreh, Chief Operating Officer at the Amman-based Sanabel International Holding told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"I think markets will assume caution in the coming couple of weeks with analysts casting doubt on the 2008 performance of businesses in the region, which have been affected in one way or another by the global financial turbulence," he said.

Makhamreh pointed out that regional markets would be affected in the coming week, with the movement of oil prices plummeting on Thursday despite OPEC's decision to cut production by 2.2 million barrels per day.

Saudi shares were volatile this week, but the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) of the Arab world's largest bourse gained 5.3 per cent since the resumption of trading on Saturday after a week-long Muslim holiday.

TASI closed the week at 4,903.81 points, which represents a 55.5-per-cent decline since the beginning of the year.

Jordanian shares rebounded this week on what Makhamreh said was foreign buying of blue chips, particularly the Arab Bank, the Arab Potash Co., the Jordan Phosphate Mines Co. and the Jordan Petroleum Refinery.

The all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange gained 5.31 per cent this week, closing at 2,943 points, according to the ASE weekly report.

Kuwaiti stocks plunged further this week despite a decision by the Central Bank of Kuwait to trim the basic interest rate by 1.00 per cent, to 3.75 per cent, in line with the US Federal Reserve's drastic cut of dollar interest rates to between zero and 0.25 per cent.

The benchmark of the Kuwaiti stock exchange lost 3.27 per cent this week, closing at 8,624 points.

The Gulf Invest brokerage attributed the decline mainly to "lack of liquidity" due to a delay in entering the market by the state- owned Kuwait Investment Corporation
(KIC) as earlier promised by the government. Financial analysts expected the KIC to start trading on Sunday.

Egypt's CASE 30 index, which measures the performance of the market's 30 most active stocks, climbed 9.7 per cent this week to close on Thursday at 4,453 points. (dpa)