Amman - Arab stock markets showed mixed performance this week as investors appeared skeptical over the annual results of listed firms in the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis, analysts said Friday.

"I believe most investors prefer to take a wait-and-see approach at this juncture when the world financial crisis keeps unfolding and listed firms prepare to announce their annual results early in January," Wajdi Makhamreh, Chief Operating Officer at the Amman-based Sanabel International Holding told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Amman - Jordan's trade deficit widened by 27 per cent in the first 10 months of the year even though exports expanded more strongly than imports in the period, Amman reported Thursday.

The state-run Department of Statistics reported a deficit of 5.675 billion dinars (8.02 billion dollars) in this year's January-October period, compared with 4.467 billion dinars a year earlier.

The deficit came on imports of 10.3 billion dinars, up 32.2 per cent from the same period last year. Exports rose by 39 per cent to almost 4.63 billion dinars.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan's main supplier of energy, topped the list of exporters to Jordan, followed by China and Germany.

Amman - Jordanian Islamists and unionists plan to dispatch a boat on December 25 with medical aid to break the siege imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the organizers, the Islamic Action Front (IAF), said Thursday.

A letter was sent to the government on Wednesday listing the names of activists, MPs and trade unionists who agreed to be on board the ship, which is due to sail from the Red Sea port of Aqaba, said Rhayyel Ghraibeh, IAF Deputy Secretary General, head of the voyage's organizing committee.

Amman - Jordanians appeared split over the possibility that the election of Barack Obama as new US president will lead to a "change" in the US Middle East policy, according to an opinion poll published Tuesday.

The survey conducted by the Centre of Strategic Studies (CSS) at the University of Jordan showed that only 43 per cent of the national sample believed Obama's election would "change" the US policy in the region, compared with 57 per cent who said they did not expect such a shift.

Amman  - The Islamic finance industry, which refers to the banking activity conducted in accordance with the principles of Sharia (Islamic law), gained the limelight over the past two months during the global financial turmoil as one of the relatively safe havens for investments.

Executives of Islamic banks and financial institutions have been arguing from the very beginning of the crisis that their businesses were relatively immune to the repercussions of the world financial turmoil because Islamic financial products were different from those inherent in the conventional banking system.

Islamic equities also turned out to be the least affected in the meltdown that swept global as well as Arab stock markets.

Amman  - An estimated accumulated Arab surplus of 1 trillion petrodollars gained prominence over the past three months as one of the key factors to reckon with in handling the global financial upheaval that erupted in the United States in September and spread to the rest of the world economy later on.

Analysts in the Middle East also raised the possibility of the turmoil prompting governments of the oil-rich Arab countries to repatriate a major part of Arab funds mostly invested or deposited in Western countries, as the Arab world appeared to emerge a safer haven for such investments.