Middle Eastern stock exchanges are all higher in today's
trading, with the Dubai DFM rising 1.90% to 1730.43. The Tel Aviv
TA-25 closed at 1081.35, up 1.53%. The Egypt EGX 30 continues its
strong performance for 2012, up 2.39% to 5349.85.
The big story in Middle East stock exchanges is the Tel Aviv
TA-25. The Israeli stock market was the feature of an article by
Tal Barak Harif in Bloomberg Businessweek. In his piece, 'The
Israali Market's Surprising Stability', Harif pointed out that:
"Israel, under threat of war from its neighbors since its founding
in 1948, produced better risk-adjusted returns than all other
developed stock markets in the past decades." For the ten-year
period ending February 17, the Tel Aviv TA-25 returned 161%.
Publicly traded companies headquartered in Israel are noted for the
preponderance of high tech firms, particularly in telecom, and the
high dividends paid. While the average dividend for a stock on the
Standard & Poor's 500 Index is around 2%, for the TA-25 it is
3.49%. As an example, Cellcom Israel (
CEL
) has a dividend of 21.75%.
MIDDLE EASTERN EXCHANGES
*Saudi TASI is at 7226.43, up 0.80%.
*Dubai DFM is at 1730.43, up 1.90%.
*Abu Dhabi ADX is at 2611.13, up 0.69%.
*Kuwait KSE is at 6126.90, up 0.17%.
*Bahrain BSE is at 1148.64, up 0.73%.
*Oman MSM is at 5837.66, up 0.47%;
*Qatar QE is at 8746.98, up 0.57%
*Lebanon LSE is at 1196.04, up 0.25%.
*Egypt EGX 30 is at 5349.85, up 2.39%.
*Jordan ASE is at 1959.75, up 0.34%.
*Tunisia TUNINDEX is at 4768.66, up 0.72%.
*Morocco CB is at 11398.90, up 0.23%
*Palestine PSE is at 482.22, up 0.18%.
*TA-25 is at 1081.35, up 1.53%.
COMMODITY INDEXES
*UBS Bloomberg CMCI is at 1,656.67 after reaching a high of
1,662.01 and a low of 1,653.43.
*Standard & Poor's GSCI is at 703.46 after reaching a high
of 711.51 and a low of 702.01.
*RJ/CRB Commodity Index is at 323.45 after reaching a high of
323.55 and a low of 322.56.
*Rogers International Index is at 3,944.79 after reaching a high
of 3,951.33 and a low of 3,931.44.
COMMODITIES
*Gold is at $1,775.50, down $12.90 and 0.73%.
*Oil is $105.92, down $0.63 -0.59% .
*Corn is at $657.25, up $8.75 and 1.33%.
*Copper is at $388.65, down $2.55 -0.66%
Currencies
*USD/JPY is at 80.690, up 0.31%.
*EUR/USD is at 1.3392, down 0.52%.
*GBP/USD is at 1.5945, up 0.30%.