JEDDAH, 1 January 2008 — The Capital Market Authority (CMA) yesterday announced a decision, allowing Anaam International Holding Group to exchange its shares outside the automatic Tadawul system, following certain conditions to be approved by the CMA’s board of directors within a month.

“If the company makes profits from its main activities for two consecutive years, the CMA will consider exchange of its shares on the automatic system,” a CMA statement said. The CMA suspended exchange of Anaam shares on Jan. 20, 2007. Anaam, formerly Mawashi Mukairish, has made losses equaling 95 percent of its capital.

The Saudi stock market, however, continued to drop yesterday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) declined 70.89 points or 0.63 percent to close at 11,175.96 after falling more than 210 points on Sunday.

Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) was the top gainer as its shares jumped 5.85 percent to SR58.75. Shares of Banque Saudi Fransi also continued to surge yesterday. Its shares closed 5.22 percent higher at SR115.75.

In the cement sector, shares of Arab Cement increased by 4.63 percent to SR96 and Tabuk Cement by 3.70 percent to SR42 yesterday.

Yanbu Cement shares fell slightly to SR94.25 despite it announced a net profit of SR660 million in 2007.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) shares also fell to SR198.50 yesterday. Shares of Riyad Bank, Al-Rajhi Bank, Bank Albilad and The Saudi Investment Bank also declined yesterday.

In the telecom sector, shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) dropped 2.04 percent to SR83.75 while Etihad Etisalat shares increased 0.68 percent to SR73.50 yesterday.

The insurance sector suffered badly as shares of only two companies increased while one remained unchanged but all other companies were in the red yesterday. The stock market turnover, however, fell to SR10.43 billion yesterday compared to SR12.98 billion on Sunday.

As the stock market has gained over 40 percent so far this year, mutual funds were also doing very well during 2007.

Analyst Abdullatif Al-Otaibi said yesterday that the total assets of investment funds operating in the Kingdom’s capital market rose from SR37.1 billion on Dec. 15 to SR39.4 billion by the end of the month. He said two new Shariah compliant funds — one for petrochemical shares and the other for cement shares — had been recently established by Al-Rajhi Bank, bringing the total number of mutual funds operating in the market to 33.

The increase in funds reflects the growth of the Saudi stock market, he added.

BMG Index Ends on Negative Note

The BMG Saudi Index ended the last trading session in 2007 on a negative note, registering a decline in yesterday’s session of 0.9 percent, and losing 5.32 points to reach 611.48 points. However, the BMG Saudi Index rose over the year by 58.8 percent. The total market turnover increased for the second consecutive trading session, reaching SR3.7 billion ($991 million), advancing by 4.2 percent from the turnover of Sunday’s trading session.

For the third consecutive trading session, only one sector gained more ground. Following its previous session’s performance, the insurance sector was yesterday’s only gainer, rising by a marginal 0.1 percent. All the other sectors lost focus, pulled back by a mood of selling in all of their constituent shares. The agricultural sector fell by 3.8 percent, ending the session as the worst performer, whereas the services and industrial sector slipped by 2.2 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.