RIYADH, 23 April 2004 — Saudi stocks climbed 1.9 percent in record volumes in the week to Thursday, as optimism over strong oil prices and robust company earnings outweighed any fears over security after attacks in Riyadh.
The all-share index of the largest Arab bourse closed at 5,562.68 points, up from 5,459.57 a week earlier. It is up 25.4 percent this year after rising 76 percent in 2003.
After Tuesday’s record close of 5,616.64, the index fell on a sell-off of speculative stocks hours before the Wednesday afternoon bombing, Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said. “The index ignored these fears in the afternoon session thus reflecting the popular rejection of what happened and even recovered some of its previous losses during yesterday’s trading (when it climbed nearly two percent),” BFA said in a report.
Turnover hit an all-time weekly high of SR49.3 billion ($13.15 billion), up from last week’s SR42.5 billion.
Saudi Electricity Co. dominated trading with 13.5 percent of total turnover. It climbed 5.9 percent to SR116.50 after reporting lower losses in the first quarter.
Decliners outnumbered advancers 39-30, reflecting a sell-off of small-cap shares.
“Investors started to shy away from speculative shares, after their unjustified sharp jump,” BFA said.
Strong oil revenues have been a boon for the economy of the world’s biggest crude exporter, helping corporate earnings and boosting investor liquidity in a yearlong rally.