Palestinian Companies among top 1,000 Arab companies

The survey, which listed most of the Arab companies on the Arab stock exchanges, indicated that total market capitalization for the top 1,000 Arab companies registered a yearly surge of 48.7% in 2007, to exceed US$ 1.3 trillion, up from US$ 904 billion in 2006. The study noted that the sharpest growth in total market capitalization was in Oman, as it reached 79.6%, followed by Qatar with an annual growth of 74.4%, Saudi Arabia (58.6%), Morocco (55.9%), and Lebanon (55.7%). Here, it is worth mentioning that the 55.7% growth corresponds to the market capitalization of all publicly traded Lebanese companies, and thus this expansion surpassed that of top 1,000 Arab companies.

However, total market capitalization of the seven Lebanese firms that made the top 1,000 list exhibited a growth of 32.8%, which is lower than the growth of the top 1,000 Arab firms. Furthermore, the survey noted that the escalation in the total market capitalization of Arab firms in 2007 is in line with the progression of almost all Arab stock exchanges. In fact, the indicators for eleven Arab stock exchanges saw an increase, the highest being that of the indicator of Muscat stock exchange which went up by 56.7%, followed by that of the Saudi Arabian stock exchange (49.1%), and that of the Doha stock exchange (42.8%).

The indicator for the Beirut stock exchange witnessed the 7th highest rise of 21.3%. Despite the significant rise in the total market capitalization of Lebanese companies, the number of Lebanese firms that made the top 1,000 list saw a drop as eleven Lebanese companies made the list in 2006. Moreover, all seven Lebanese companies that made the list saw an annual drop in their rankings, in spite of the market capitalization growth of four of these companies.

The distribution of Arab market capitalization by country demonstrates that Saudi Arabia controls 38% of the Arab capital market. It was followed by UAE with a share of 15%, Kuwait with 14%, Egypt with 12%, Qatar with 7%, Morocco with 6%, Jordan with 3%, Bahrain with 2%, Oman with 2%, Lebanon with 1%, and Tunisia and Palestine with a share below 1% each.

Moreover, the study noted that when dividing the Arab market capitalization by sector, the banking sector holds the bulk of the Arab capital. Particularly, the share of the banking sector is the highest in Lebanon among other Arab countries as it reaches 58.1% of total market capitalization with US$ 5.8 billion.

Finally, Saudi Arabian firms continued to dominate the top three positions in terms of market capitalization. Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) continued to rank first in terms of market capitalization for the third consecutive year, and it’s a petrochemicals’ manufacturer. Its market capitalization amounted to US$ 132,322.8 million in 2007, up by 88.6% from US$ 70,157.3 million in 2006. It was followed Al Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation, a Saudi Islamic bank, whose ranking improved from the third spot in 2006. Saudi Telecom came in third in 2007 after it was in the second spot in 2006

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