VOL. XLV

No 32

12-August-2002

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi Share Index Rises 13.7% In First Half2002

The share index of the Saudi stockmarket grew 13.7% during the first half of 2002 despite falling 4.4% in June,and market capitalization increased by 11.8% from SR274.5bn ($73.2bn) toSR307.0bn ($81.9%) over the six month period according to a recent reportpublished by the Economics Department of Saudi Arabias National CommercialBank (NCB). The report attributed the strong gain to low interest rates,...