JEDDAH, 4 January 2006 — The Saudi stock market continued to surge yesterday after touching an all-time high on Monday. The Tadawul All-Share Index rose 18.96 points yesterday to close at 17,184.62.

The major Banking Index dropped 667.68 points to 41,891.41 as shares of top banks declined.

Al-Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp. and Arab National Bank shares fell over three percent each to SR2,890.75 and SR1,015, respectively. Only shares of Saudi Hollandi Bank and Samba Financial Group rose yesterday.

The Industrial Index also gained 432.01 points to 41,702.27 as shares of major companies such as Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and Saudi Arabia Refineries Co. (SARCO) rose yesterday. SABIC shares up 1.77 percent to SR1,612 and SARCO by 9.99 percent to SR4,493.

The Cement and Services Indexes fell yesterday.

Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) shares jumped 3.37 percent to SR153.50.

In the telecom sector, shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) rose to SR975.50 and Etihad Etisalat shares fell to SR720.

The National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) shares edged higher 1.47 percent to SR724.

In the agriculture sector, shares of Bishah Agriculture rose 5.78 percent to SR1,190 and National Agriculture Development Co. by 3.66 percent to SR708.

The value of traded shares reached SR29.88 billion yesterday.

Salim J. Ghalayini, a Riyadh-based financial consultant, told Arab News that, “the Saudi stock market crossed a new milestone of 17,000 coupled with an outstanding performance in 2005. This will be a major contributor to reinforce investor sentiment, since it happened at this special time of the year.”

He added that “The main catalysts for this strong performance are sustained global oil demand in spite of the current high prices, impressive Saudi budget that include a huge surplus and many billions of dollars worth projects, high liquidity in the Saudi economy coupled with limited investment opportunities outside the stock market, and a superior performance of the Saudi stock market compared to leading global markets.”

Ghalayini said, “Investment money looks for a secure place, and the recent clampdown decisions by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) on illegal traders and stock price manipulation increased the level of confidence of many investors.”