JEDDAH: The Saudi stock market continued to plunge yesterday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) dropped below 9,000 points for the first time since April 1.

The index plummeted 3.18 percent or 295.17 points, its biggest one-day fall since Feb. 9, to close at 8,998.28 points yesterday after dropping 2.35 percent on Tuesday.

The index declined 5.53 percent in two days.

Only six stocks were in the black as 108 companies suffered fall in their stock prices.

The stock market turnover increased yesterday to SR8.50 billion from SR7.89 billion on Tuesday.

While commenting on the sharp decline in the index, SABB Chief Economist John Sfakianakis said “although it is easy to account for the sharp decline due to one factor, the Iran factor, the cause could be due to seasonal factors, one of them being expected earning results.” He added the confluence of events between the expected earning results and events over Iran do make it convenient for many analysts to look at the latter issue as the prime factor behind the recent decline. Shares in the bellwether Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) fell 5.10 percent to SR130 yesterday.

Saudi Indian Company for Cooperative Insurance was the top gainer yesterday as its shares surged 9.89 percent to SR108.25. Fitaihi Holding Group’s shares increased by 3.70 percent to SR21, Alabdullatif Industrial Investment Co. by 1.46 percent to SR69.25, Saudi Arabia Fertilizer Co. by 0.77 percent to SR259 and Almarai Co. by 0.60 percent to SR165 as it announced yesterday 37.9 percent increase in net profit for the first half of this year.

Shares in Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) dropped 2.88 percent to SR59, Etihad Etisalat by 2.87 percent to SR50.75 and Zain KSA by 4.21 percent to SR22.75.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Maaden) announced yesterday that the fourth day of subscriptions witnessed continued strong interest in its initial public offering (IPO). Over 2.7 investors have poured SR3.94 billion into the Maaden IPO at the end of the fourth day. The Maaden offer is 68 percent subscribed so far.

BMG index down

The Saudi stocks ended the week’s last trading session on a negative note, pulling down the BMG Saudi Index’s below 500 points to close 3.2 percent down at 490.21 points. The market turnover, however, continued to rise.

The turnover surged 30.4 percent to reach SR4.3 billion ($1.2 billion) versus SR3.3 billion ($888 million), registered in the previous trading session.

All the sectors maintained the negative trend. The insurance sector went down by 1.5 percent. The services and electricity sectors also fell by 1.8 percent and 2.1 percent, whereas the banking, industrial, telecommunications and agricultural sectors descended by 2.6 percent, 3.8 percent, 4.2 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

Only three shares escaped the negative trend; 24 shares ended the session in the red.