RIYDAH, 3 January 2005 — The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) closed on Thursday, the last trading day for the Saudi market in 2004 at 8,206.23, up 84.93 percent from the year 2003. According to Abdullah Al-Suweilmy, general manager of Tadawul, the index reached an all-time high of 8,375.45 on Nov. 24, 2004. The market capitalization stood at SR1.149 trillion ($306.4 billion) by the end of 2004, an increase of 95 percent compared to 2003. Al-Suweilmy stated that the total value traded during 2004 was SR1.774 trillion ($473.03 billion) compared with SR596.5 billion ($159.07 billion) in 2003, an increase of 197 percent. The volume traded in 2004 was 10.3 billion shares compared with 5.6 billion in 2003, an increase of 85 percent and the total number of transactions in 2004 was 13.3 million compared with 3.76 million in the previous year, an increase of 254 percent.