JEDDAH, 8 May 2008 — The Saudi stock market continued to fall on profit taking for a sixth session yesterday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) plunged 154.77 points or 1.56 percent to close at 9,771.85. Over SR7.22 billion worth of shares changed hands as 94 companies were in negative territory, while only 15 companies were in black.
Banking stocks led declines as 7 companies showed negative performance. Shares in three banks increased yesterday. The gainers were SABB, up 2.42 percent, Bank Albilad 2.70 percent and Samba Financial Group 0.52 percent.
Al-Rajhi Bank’s shares dropped 2.41 percent to SR91 as the Kuwait-based Global Investment House downgraded it to “reduce” from “hold” on valuation with a medium term perspective and valued the stock at SR81.66. At the current market price, Al-Rajhi Bank’s shares are trading at P/E and PBV multiples of 20.3x and 5.8x, respectively.
Banque Saudi Fransi shares declined by 5.29 percent to SR85 and Riyad Bank by 4.01 percent to SR83.75.
Petrochemical stocks were in the red yesterday. Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) shares fell to SR145 yesterday.
In the telecommunication & information technology sector, shares in Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) dropped 2.98 percent to SR65, Etihad Etisalat by 5.12 percent to SR55.50 and Zain KSA by 1.94 percent to SR25.25.
Fitaihi Holding Group shares jumped 8.23 percent to SR23 yesterday as the extraordinary general assembly of Ahmed H. Fitaihi Company shareholders approved on Tuesday the capital increase through bonus shares.
Rush for MMG IPO
Meanwhile, HSBC Saudi Arabia Ltd., the financial adviser and lead manager for the initial public offering (IPO) of Mohammad Al-Mojil Group (MMG), announced yesterday that retail subscription to the IPO reached SR1,029,857,500 by close of the fourth day of the offering.
At the end of Tuesday, applications had been received from 992,439 subscribers, which covered 163.5 percent of the retail tranche of the IPO and 49 percent of the entire IPO.
This is higher than the initial allocation to the retail tranche of 30 percent of the IPO. The IPO of MMG opened for subscription on May 3, and will close on May 12. All Saudi banks are serving as receiving banks for the offering. Shares are priced at SR70.