JEDDAH, 13 November 2005 — The rally in the Saudi stock market is showing no sign of abating as the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) jumped 117.17 points to a new high of 16,194.55 points yesterday in a trading dominated by banking shares.

The rising bank shares sent the Banking index higher by a massive 1,328.78 points at 40,831.20.

Shares of Riyad Bank rose 8.29 percent yesterday to close at SR862 followed by Bank AlJazira by 4.70 percent at SR1,360. Bank Albilad shares were higher by 4.52 percent at SR914. Shares of the remaining banks also made hefty gains.

The Cement and Agriculture indices edged higher. Eastern Cement shares fell while shares of other cement companies were trading higher yesterday.

In the agriculture sector, shares of National Agriculture Development Co., Tabuk Agriculture, Bishah Agriculture and Gizan Agriculture dropped while shares of other companies climbed yesterday.

Fall in share prices of major companies such as Saudi Basic Industries Corp., Saudi Arabia Fertilizer Co., Savola Group, Almarai, Saudi Advanced Industries Co. and Zamil Industrial Investment Co. pulled the Industrial index down by 260.38 points at 40,221.72.

Tihama Advertising & Public Relations Co. and National Agriculture Marketing Co. shares went up by 10 percent each to close at SR352 and SR330, respectively.

Out of 77 shares traded, 37 were higher while 38 were down. The value of the shares traded reached SR23.66 billion yesterday.

Meanwhile, according to information received here from Bahrain, Nass Corporation yesterday announced the results and allotment basis of its initial public offering (IPO) which opened on Oct. 9 through Oct. 30 of this year.

The total number of ordinary shares on offer to investors of all nationalities throughout the Gulf region numbered at 50 million shares which sold for BD 0.612 per share, giving the offer a total value of BD 30 million.

“The offer was oversubscribed by 2.62 times. We received subscription for 130,858,000 shares for a total value of almost BD 80 million” said Hisham Al-Saie, head of corporate finance at SICO Investment Bank (SICO), the IPO lead manager.

“After obtaining approvals from the relevant authorities, the allotment basis for the subscription process gives each subscriber a minimum of 1,000 ordinary shares, giving a combined total of 19,084,000 ordinary shares.

The remaining shares were allotted on a pro-rata basis according to each individual subscriber’s subscription amount,” said Al-Saie

Twenty five percent of shares in Nass Corporation were made available through the IPO process and this will result in the corporation being listed on the Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) on Nov. 22. The Nass Corporation founding shareholders retain a 51 percent majority stake in the company, and 24 percent of shares were placed with GCC strategic investors through a private placement which took place in June this year.

“The next exciting event for Nass Corporation’s investors will be cross listing the company’s ordinary shares with another GCC stock exchange sometime in the next few months, which will of course be subject to obtaining relevant regulatory approvals from those exchanges,” said Al-Saie.