JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's stock market jumped by nearly $21 billion in the first two weeks of March to partly offset massive losses in the previous weeks because of regional unrest, data from the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund showed Monday. The increase lifted the combined capitalization of the Arab stock markets by nearly $31 billion, with the bulk coming from the Kingdom and Qatar, the data noted. From around $318 billion at the end of February, the market capitalization of Saudi Tadawul surged to nearly $339 billion Sunday. The increase partly offset a loss of about $54 billion suffered by Tadawul in the previous two months because of turmoil in the Arab region. However, the Tadawul All Share Index fell 1.25 percent Monday to close at 6,230.7 points on concerns over unrest. Qatar's bourse also recorded a sharp recovery with its market capitalization swelling to around $117 billion Sunday from $110 billion at the end of February. Kuwait, which had fallen by nearly $10 billion in February, slipped by around $300 million to $116.7 billion Sunday. The surge in Saudi Arabia and Qatar lifted the combined Arab market capitalization to nearly $941 billion fro0m $910 billion in the same period. Abu Dhabi gained about $1.4 billion to reach $69.9 billion compared with $68.5 billion. Dubai grew by nearly $two billion after a drop in previous weeks to reach $52.9 billion compared with $50.9 billion. Bahrain, which has suffered from unrest, saw a slight fall to around $20 billion from $20.2 billion while Oman rose to $20.6 billion from $19.8 billion.
