The Palestine Exchange alone in green amongst Arab Exchanges at the end of the first quarter 2011

The Palestine Exchange’s index “The Al-Quds Index” led all Arab markets’ indices as at 31 March 2011 where it closed up by 1.65% compared to the close of 2010. This makes the Palestine Exchange the only exchange in green amongst all Arab stock markets as at the end of the first quarter 2011.

Ahmad Aweidah, CEO of the Palestine Exchange (PEX) called upon local and international investors to grab this opportunity and invest in listed stocks on PEX. Aweidah noted that most listed companies are seeing growth in their profits and dividend distributions, he also referred to the 16.31% growth in PEX market cap during this quarter.

Aweidah announced that PEX will be launching in the coming weeks a local promotional campaign to promote investment in listed stocks.  He added: “the campaign will address local retail investors informing them of the benefits of investment in stocks where return on investment has ranged between 5-7% over the last five years while investors get less than 1% on cash deposits in banks”. Aweidah indicated that many listed stocks on PEX are very attractive in valuation;  21 out of 42 listed equities are trading at prices which are lower than their book value.