JEDDAH: Saudi bourse skyrocketed yesterday on the first trading day of 2009 after global stock markets made hefty gains on Friday amid investor hopes for a brighter year ahead. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) broke the 5,000-point barrier and closed 4.59 percent or 220.23 points higher at 5,023.22 after dropping over 50 percent last year.

Out of 125 companies traded yesterday, only five companies were in the red while all other companies showed positive performance. The stock market turnover on the first day of trading was SR6.27 billion.

National Industrialization Co. was the top gainer on the day as its shares jumped 9.96 percent to SR14.35.

The top loser yesterday was United Cooperative Assurance Co. Its shares plunged 9.09 percent to SR32.

Tadawul also announced yesterday that Methanol Chemicals Company has been included in the market index on the basis of the closing stock price on Dec.31, 2008. The year 2008 was a horrendous year for stock markets around the world and Saudi bourse was not an exception.

At the end of 2008, TASI closed at 4,802.99 points compared to 11,038.66 points for the previous year, The index lost 6,235.67 points or 56.49 percent in 2008. The highest closing level for the index during the year was 11,697.01 points as on Jan. 12, according to the annual Tadawul statistical report for 2008, which was released yesterday.

The total market capitalization at the end of the year reached SR924.53 billion, down 52.50 percent as compared to the previous year.

The total value of shares traded dropped by 23.25 percent to SR1.96 trillion compared to SR2.56 trillion for the previous year. The total number of shares traded also fell by 3.32 percent to 59.68 billion last year compared to 61.73 billion shares traded in 2007.

The total number of transactions executed in 2008 reached 52.14 million compared to 65.67 million traded for the previous year, a 20.60 percent decrease.

The Tadawul report said daily average value of shares traded in 2008 reached SR7.82 billion compared to SR10.31 billion for the previous year, a drop of 24.17 percent.

The daily average number of shares traded declined by 4.48 percent to reach at 237.78 million compared to 248.92 million shares for the previous year.

The daily average number of transactions executed in 2008 reached 207,710 compared to 264,780 transactions for the previous year, marking a 21.55 percent decrease.

In term of volume of shares traded, petrochemical industries were the most active sector last year. The number of shares traded for the sector reached 14.61 billion representing 24.49 percent of the total volume traded during the year, followed by banks and financial services sector with a volume of 9.46 billion shares, or 15.85 percent of the total shares traded during the year and the real estate development sector with 6.30 billion shares traded, or 10.56 percent of the total shares traded in 2008.

The petrochemical industries sector also led the market in term of value of shares traded during the year 2008 amounting to SR637.69 billion, or 32.49 percent of the total value traded, followed by banks and financial services sector SR208.98 billion, or 10.65 percent and the real estate development sector SR163.73 billion or 8.34 percent of the total value traded.

In terms of number of transactions, petrochemical industries was the most active sector in 2008 with 9.90 million trades that represent 18.98 percent of the total transactions executed during the year, followed by the insurance sector 7.64 million trades or 14.65 percent and the industrial investment sector with 5.55 million trades or 10.65 percent of the total transactions during the year 2008. According to Tadawul statistics, Mobile Telecommunications Company Saudi Arabia (Zain KSA) led the market in terms of the number of transactions with 3.96 million trades in 2008, followed by Alinma Bank and Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. (Petro Rabigh) with 3.32 million and 2.41 million transactions respectively.

Alinma Bank topped the list with 7.79 billion shares traded during the year, followed by Zain KSA and Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Co.(Saudi Kayan) with a volume of 5.39 and 4.88 billion shares respectively.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) was the market leader in term of value of shares traded in 2008 and has shown a turnover of SR174.65 billion. The two other most active stocks were Petro Rabigh and Saudi Kayan that posted value of SR155.06 billion and SR120.66 billion, respectively.

Thirteen companies offered parts of their shares to the public in initial public offerings (IPOs) last year. There were three companies each from the insurance and industrial investment sectors, two from the petrochemical industries sector and one company each from banks and financial services, retail, agriculture and food industries, telecommunication and information technology, and building and construction sector.

The total value for the offered shares reached SR36.39 billion and the number of shares offered for all IPOs was 2.63 billion shares.

All 13 new companies were listed and traded in Tadawul in 2008, bringing the total number of listed companies to 127.

By 2008-end, the market capitalization of the offered companies reached SR66.67 billion representing 7.21 percent of the total market capitalization.