JEDDAH, 8 April 2008 — The BMG Saudi Index reversed its performance again this week, in its third trading session, to land in positive territory, moving up by 1.3 percent to 532.9 points.
The market turnover, however, maintained its negative performance, declining by 19.8 percent to a total of SR2.5 billion ($660 million) versus SR3.1 billion ($822 million), traded in Sunday’s session.
All the sectors followed the Index’s uptrend, with the exception of the Telecommunications and the Banking sectors, which went down by 0.8 percent and 0.3 percent respectively. The Industrial sector, was the best performer, appreciating by 2.3 percent, and was followed by the Electricity sector, which went up by 1.8 percent. The insurance sector came in third, with a 1.4 percent increase, while the Services sector experienced an increase of 0.7 percent, whereas the Agricultural sector went up by 0.2 percent.
22 shares ended the session with a positive increase in their shares, whilst only two shares recorded losses. The best performer was Saudi Advanced Industries Co., moving up, by 8.7 percent, to SR25.00 per share. Saudi Telecom was the worst performing share of the day, descending by 0.9 percent, to SR63.50 per share. The Index’s two leading shares, SABIC and Al Rajhi Bank, ended Monday’s session on a mixed note, the former appreciating by 2.4 percent to SR158.25, while the latter declined 0.3 percent to SR85.75.