JEDDAH: The Saudi stock market ended the last day of the week with a minor gain. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed 1.85 points higher at 5,802.14. Four out of fifteen market sectors maintained small gains yesterday. This week the index was mostly in positive territory, except on Sunday when it dropped slightly.
Market breadth was negative with only 25 advancers against 93 decliners with an advance decline (AD) ratio of .93.
“Today’s close put the market at weekly gains of 177 points or 3 percent as the gains were much higher on the intraday level if not for profit-taking which is partially due to some market players that prefer to close position before weekends,” the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily commentary about Saudi stock market.
“The index has found resistance around the downtrend line that connects the highs of last June and August. Today’s (Wednesday’s) close is above 5,800 level by only 2 points which may prove a weak support level to maintain,” Faisal Alsayrafi, managing director and CEO of FTH, said.
The stock market turnover was over SR9.45 billion yesterday.
SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) came at the top of list as the most active stock for the day. Over SR2 billion worth of SABIC shares changed hands. SABIC stock closed 1.70 percent higher at SR59.75.
National Gypsum Co. was the top gainer as its shares jumped 4.42 percent to SR50.75 yesterday. Sahara Petrochemical Co. shares also increased by 2.16 percent to close at SR18.90.
United International Transportation Company’s shares plunged 7.52 percent to SR64.50 yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) imposed a fine of SR100,000 on Bank Albilad for violating its regulations. “The bank published its financial statement for 2008 in a local newspaper before presenting it to the authority. The bank also did not provide a copy of the statement soon after it was endorsed by its board of directors on Feb. 22, 2009,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the CMA as saying.
The CMA has approved Jarir Marketing Company’s request to increase its capital from SR300 million to SR400 million by issuing one bonus share for every three shares owned.
The increase will be paid by transferring an amount of SR90,644,000 from the statutory reserve and an amount of SR9,356,000 from the retained earnings to the company’s capital and by increasing the company’s outstanding shares from 30 million to 40 million shares, an increase of 10 million.
The bonus shares eligibility is limited to shareholders who are registered in the shareholders register at the close of trading on the extraordinary general assembly day, which will be determined later by the company’s board, the CMA said in a statement on Tadawul website yesterday.
Nonetheless, Jarir’s shares fell 0.29 percent to SR170 yesterday.