Magic carpet ride for young Fahad

Saudi Arabia's telecoms industry reflects the country's wealth. The kingdom has 8 million mobile phones. Picture / Reuters

Fahad, a thick-set 22-year-old, stands proudly next to the brand new Cadillac he bought with money made trading on the Saudi kingdom's booming stock market.
"I also bought a Mercedes. Praise be to Allah, I have done well," he said.

Fahad decided six months ago to try his luck in the sharemarket, which has shot up about 300 per cent in two years as oil prices and corporate profits have soared and local investors continued to repatriate capital following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US.

"My father gave me around 3.5 million riyals [$1.3 million] to buy shares. I now have about 5.2 million."

He invested mainly in petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries. During the past year, shares in the firm have climbed 46 per cent to 1165 riyals.

Inside his bank's dimly lit domestic trading room, anxious investors sit on rows of armchairs and squat on floors, their eyes glued to large projection screens showing prices for the kingdom's stock exchange, the largest in the Middle East.

Similar scenes can be seen up and down the country, as trading floors have become the epicentre of Saudi Arabia's recent fixation with the sharemarket.

Half the kingdom's 16.5 million population applied for shares in its new Islamic bank, Bank AlBilad.

Electronic information providers are scrambling to supply enough trading room terminals. Technicians behind the bourse's website, Tadawul, say they are run off their feet. When Fahad is not jostling for space in the trading room, he is poring over market graphs and economic journals.

He says he has doubled his initial investment, making hundreds of thousands of riyals.

- REUTERS