ASE kicks off week with drop

AMMAN — the general price index of stocks listed at the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) dropped by 0.2 percent, with transactions on Sunday closing at 1,779.17 points.اضافة اعلان

Investors are awaiting for the general assemblies of listed companies to conclude and distribute dividends, in addition to announcing companies’ financial performance for the first quarter of the year, which would give investors sufficient information to redistribute their finances in line with expected returns.

Stock speculators are currently investing in the market by moving their central assets to achieve capital gains as a result of the rise of some stocks.

Notably, 167 out of 178 listed companies have disclosed their 2020 financial data to the ASE, with shareholders’ profits reaching JD383.1 million, compared with JD1.1151 billion in 2019, recording a decline of 65.6 percent.

Before tax, these companies’ profits reached JD663 million in 2020, compared with JD1.5993 billion in 2019, with the drop standing at 58.5 percent, according to the ASE website.

However, some blue-chip shares achieved gains during Sunday’s session, rendering them cohesive and maintaining, or slightly raising their prices in the market.

This comes after the World Bank lowered its projections for the Kingdom’s economic growth for the second time since the beginning of the year, in light of the ramifications of the second COVID-19 wave on the economy, particularly on global trade and industrial sectors.

The World Bank reduced its previous national economy growth projection from 1.8 percent to 1.4 percent, following the 2020 contraction.

The total trading volume of Sunday stood at JD5.9 million, with 6.4 million shares traded through 3,156 transactions.

Comparing the closing prices of traded companies, amounting to 89 companies, with their previous closing prices, it appears that the shares of 27 companies rose, while the shares of 33 others dropped.

Concerning sectors, the index of the industrial sector dropped by 0.19 percent, while that of the financial sector dropped by 0.14 percent, and the index of the service sector saw a decline of 0.08 percent.