JEDDAH, 8 October 2007 — The Saudi stock market recovered slightly yesterday, with the Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) increasing 26.88 points to 7,724.12, from a fall of 67.93 points on Saturday.
Shares of 75 companies surged while 22 companies were in the red. Over SR4.27 billion worth of shares changed hands yesterday.
Saleh Al-Salman, a market analyst said the Saudi stock market is currently facing a shortage of liquidity and sluggishness of transactions which is quite usual during the last week of Ramadan and before the beginning of the Eid Al-Fitr holidays. Most of the dealers would like to wait until the scene becomes clear after the Eid holidays.
Investors are keeping their fingers crossed as listed companies have already started announcing their third quarter results.
In the telecom sector, shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) fell 0.39 percent to SR63.50 and Etihad Etisalat by 0.76 percent to SR65.50 yesterday.
Shares of the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) dropped 5.69 percent to SR116 as it announced a 1.3 percent decline in net profit of SR103.1 million in the third quarter from the year-earlier period.