JEDDAH, 7 May 2007 — The Saudi stock market continued to slide yesterday after falling 2.73 percent on Saturday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) fell 7.63 points to 7,319.82. Shares of the newly-listed Malath Cooperative Insurance and Reinsurance Co. dropped 9.60 percent to SR40 yesterday after soaring 342.50 percent on its listing on the Tadawul on Saturday. Shares of the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) also fell 1.44 percent to SR102.50 yesterday.
The agriculture sector was in positive territory as shares of some of the companies made hefty gains.
In the telecom sector, shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and Etihad Etisalat also dropped.
The stock market turnover also declined to SR8.63 billion yesterday from SR11.32 billion on Saturday.
According to the Tadawul’s report for the month of April, TASI closed at 7,423.58 points, a fall of 3.16 percent over the previous month, and 6.42 percent on an YTD basis. Highest close level for the index during the month was 8,061.97 as of April 7.
The market capitalization at the end of April reached SR1.16 trillion ($308.61 billion), decreasing by 3.07 percent over the previous month.
The total value of shares traded for the month of April dropped by 35.88 percent over the previous month to reach SR263.5 billion ($70.27 billion). The total number of shares traded reached 5.92 billion in April compared to 8.20 billion shares in the previous month, falling by 27.79 percent. The Tadawul report said total number of transactions executed during April also declined by 28.12 percent to 6.77 million compared to 9.42 million trades in March.
In April, Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company’s initial public offering began with 675 million shares or 45 percent of its issued shares offered at SR10 per share. The offering that began on April 28 ends today.
In the corporate front, the report said National Gypsum Company increased its paid-up capital by issuing one bonus share for every three shares held, raising its total number of issued shares to 31,666,667 effective April 1.
Aseer Trading, Tourism & Manufacturing Co. increased its paid-up capital by issuing 45,138,889 new shares (rights issue) at a price of SR27 per share (SR10 as nominal value and SR17 as a premium), raising its total number of issued shares to 126,388,889 effective April 11.
National Industrialization Company increased its paid-up capital by issuing one bonus share for every two shares held, raising its total number of issued shares to 349,573,575 from April 11.
Saudi Industrial Export Company also increased its paid-up capital by issuing one bonus share for every two share held, raising its total number of issued shares to 10.8 million from April 18.
Saudi Public Transport Company increased its paid-up capital by issuing one bonus share for every four shares held, raising its total number of issued shares to 125 million from April 24.
Bank AlJazira increased its paid-up capital by issuing one bonus share for every one share held, raising its total number of issued shares to 225 million from April 30.
The BMG Saudi Index also dropped in yesterday’s trading session by 1.3 percent to 391.3 points, losing around 5.1 points from the previous trading session. However, total index turnover increased to SR5.7 billion ($1.5 billion), up by 15.6 percent from Saturday’s trading.