Amman - Arab stock markets plunged further this week under the pressure of bad news coming from world financial markets and retreating oil prices, financial analysts said Friday.

"Regional markets are still fragile and responsive to bad news coming from western capitals where governments struggle tentatively to deal with the deepening recession," Wajdi Makhamreh, Chief Operating Officer of the Amman-based Sanabel International Holding, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Arab stock markets are suffering from lack of vision and ambiguity with the correlation between the Arab area and global markets is increasingly becoming more clear," he added.

Makhamreh pointed out that investors "were ignoring the results of listed firms and instead they are monitoring what is going on at US and European bourses".

"Therefore, investors at regional markets prefer speedy profits and hit-and-run tactics to the exclusion of long-term commitments," he said.

Saudi shares plummeted this week, responding to negative performance on global markets and falling crude prices.

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) of the Arab world's largest stock exchange, shed further 4.9 per cent this week, closing at 4,542.11 points.

TASI is currently 5.4 per cent lower than the year's start, according to the weekly report of the Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG).

Successive plunges at Wall Street put downward pressure on Saudi blue chips, particularly the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), which fell dramatically as investors became weary over the conglomerate's "performance on international markets under the current cloudy conditions of the world economy", the report said.

The BIG expected investors to "keep watching oil prices closely, as they represent an important indicator reflecting the impact of the current global recession".

"In the short run, however, some investors will keep reallocating their investment positions to make benefit from the current market volatility," the group said.

Jordanian shares lost further ground this week amid a deepening liquidity shortage due to contraction in lending by banks, Makhamreh said.

However, there were news in the market that foreign funds particularly from the Gulf region were staging a comeback to the Amman Stock Exchange, he added.

The ASE all-share price index shed 2.23 per cent this week, closing at 2,616 points, led by blue chip firms.

Kuwait's KSE all-share price index plunged 3.6 per cent this week, closing at 6,444 points from last week's close at 6,688 points.

The benchmark price of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi gained 1.9 per cent this week, to close at 2,486 points.

Egypt's CASE 30 index, which measures the performance of the market's 30 most active stocks, gained 0.99 per cent on Thursday to close week at 3,598 points. (dpa)