JEDDAH, 20 January 2005 — Financial results of Saudi Electric Company (SEC) for the year 2004 have shown, before auditing, a profit of SR1.422 billion against SR1.408 billion for 2003, representing an increase of SR14 million. Yet the financial results, audited for the last quarter of 2004 have shown a net loss of SR74 million compared with a profit of SR532 million for the same period of 2003.
The losses of the fourth quarter of 2004 reflected on the stock market as SEC’s stock value dropped by almost 7 percent to SR 126.5 per share at closing session on Monday night. Total dealing of SEC’s shares reached 5.6 million with the stock market closing at a drop of 07.5 percent falling by 57.5 points to close at index of 7904.5 points.
SEC’s shares have a substantial value and weight in the Saudi index. However, its drop did not have a bearish impact on the index. The momentum of the strong market has been attributable to other factors such as the total net profits of SR3 billion announced by nine listed companies on Monday.
Additionally, leading banks such as Riyadh Bank, Arab National Bank and Saudi British Bank have announced strong financial profits and many other banks and stock companies are expected to announce their profits soon.