JEDDAH, 2 October 2006 — Banks received a circular yesterday based on directives from the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency (SAMA) to change their stock trading halls working hours. The news comes less than a week after the Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced that it would be changing its trading hours starting Oct. 28 to one session from between 11 am — 3.30 pm, the banks’ brokerage department will also change their hours to 9 am - 5 pm starting the same day. The banks regular branch service working hours will remain as they are in two sessions, a morning and an evening session.
A source at the National Commercial Bank (NCB) told Arab News that in accordance with rules by SAMA, banks are expected to change the working hours in their trading halls to suit the change in the Tadawul stock market trading hours. “Since the brokerage department will be separated from the bank’s other activities, which the banks will establish as independent, this change is part of the process and was expected,” said the source. Sources in other banks also confirmed that banks began making arrangements for operating the trading halls and employing staff in preparation for launching their brokerage and investment companies sometime by mid next year.
Meanwhile, experts have applauded the change made by CMA in making the trading hours one session rather than the two sessions, in the morning and in the afternoon, that have been the norm since the Tadawul’s establishment in the eighties.
“I think it will have a positive impact,” said Dr. Said Al-Shaikh, chief economist at NCB. He explained that in the previous two-session system, there were two different groups of traders, the professionals who came in the morning and the public and private sector employees who came in the afternoon.