Amman - Arab stock markets plummeted on Wednesday after two days of strong gains, apparently in response to declines at the Wall Street and Asian markets and fears that a world recession has already ushered in, financial analysts said.

The only exception was the Saudi stock exchange, which closed slightly in the green after violent fluctuations.

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) of the Saudi market departed the red area in the last few minutes of the day's trading to close 0.5 per cent higher than Tuesday's close after sinking more than 6 per cent at the start of trading. TASI climbed 17 per cent in the previous two days.

"The benchmark price managed to close in the green area due to the gains scored by blue chips, mainly the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) as well as the banking and telecommunication sectors," said Rashed al-Fousan, a prominent Saudi financial analyst.

"We believe that investors are turning to the objective factors, foremost the third quarter results, after being captives of the psychological fears that gripped all global markets over the past couple of weeks due to the world financial crisis," he added.

All other Arab bourses started with heavy losses in the morning and ended with modest declines.

In Jordan, the all-share price index of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) closed 1.41 down after plummeting about 3 per cent.

Kuwait's all-share index shed 0.64 per cent after closing 0.3 per cent on Tuesday. Analysts said that the Kuwaiti stock exchange was emerging as the most stable market in the region.

The benchmark price of the United Arab Emirates stock exchange of Dubai plunged 7.44 per cent on Wednesday.

Egypt's CASE 30 index, which measures the performance of the market's 30 most active stocks, closed 2.7 per cent lower than Tuesday's close.

"The performance of Arab markets on Wednesday indicates that the great earthquake has already happened in the world and Arab bourses are now experiencing the aftermath of the earthquake," said Amr Hamed, the Cairo-based financial analyst of al-Jazeera television. (dpa)