Meanwhile, Minister of Industry and Trade Amer Hadidi said on Thursday Jordan is unharmed by the current financial crisis that is currently sweeping through global financial markets.

The continuous drop over the past four days in the ASE market, during which the market plunged by some 15 per cent, was "unreasonable. Prices of shares were way undervalued", said Jawad Kharouf, president of the Association of Certified Capital Market Professionals, adding that the bear market provided a good opportunity to buy.

"I expect the upward trend to get stronger as of Sunday, especially since today [Thursday] big investors started to buy shares in large quantities," Kharouf said.

Nasser Barghouthi, director of a brokerage house affiliated to the Industrial Development Bank, echoed the remarks.

"I have stressed several times that the prices are so much undervalued and it seems confidence in the market was restored and investors started buying," he said.

The share prices index closed at 3,562 point, an increase of 1.98 per cent from Wednesday, when it dropped by 3.91 per cent. On Tuesday, the index plunged by 3.87 per cent, on Monday by 4.28 per cent and on Sunday by 3.08 per cent.

The trading value on Thursday reached JD79.2 million. A total of 18.7 million shares were traded through 15,569 transactions.

The shares of 180 (out of 200) companies were traded. The share prices of 150 companies rose and of 25 declined.

In a statement to the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Hadidi said: "The government was prepared for any emergency that might affect the national economy."

He added that the Cabinet formed a special committee to follow up on the repercussions of the crisis and handle any situation that might emerge as a result.

Mohammad Ghazal

© Jordan Times 2008

 

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