JEDDAH: After gaining 1.9 percent last week, the Saudi stock market maintained its upward momentum on Saturday.
Petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) helped offset slight declines in banking stocks to push the Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) to a higher close. The index ended 0.14 percent higher at 5,786.31 after hitting an intraday peak of 5,857.66. The index is 20.47 percent higher so far this year after falling over 50 percent in 2008.
SABIC shares closed 1.44 percent higher at SR70.25.
Al-Rajhi Bank shares declined by 0.75 percent to SR66, Saudi Hollandi Bank by 0.84 percent to SR35.40 and Samba Financial Group by 0.44 percent to SR45.20.
The stock market turnover was over SR3.98 billion on Saturday compared to SR25.57 billion in last week.
“Despite a slightly positive close, and managing to close slightly above the 5-day moving average, the market showed many negative signs on Saturday, including a negative market breadth and a big drop in liquidity. The market is obviously range bound, and seems to be indecisive about the next leg, awaiting further external news to determine the direction of the upcoming month,” the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said.
Overall market breadth was slightly negative on Sunday, with 57 decliners and 53 advancers giving an AD ratio of 1.08.
Sanad Insurance & Reinsurance Cooperative Company was the top gainer on Saturday as its shares jumped 9.97 percent to SR33.10. Shares in Al-Sagr Cooperative Insurance Co. increased by 9.43 percent to SR58 and Saudi United Cooperative Insurance Company by 5.82 percent to SR29.10.
Etihad Atheeb Telecommunication Co. shares plunged by 5.24 percent to close at SR19 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Jeddah-based BMG Financial group announced on Saturday it had signed an index creation agreement with Tadawul, by which all existing and future indexes created by the company will be officially licensed and approved by Tadawul.
BMG currently maintains the BMG Saudi Index. The BMG Saudi index was created in April 2006 and it takes into account the 30 most actively traded Saudi stocks in free float, disregarding all government ownership. The list of companies comprised on the index is refreshed quarterly in order to reflect the 30 most actively traded stocks during the previous quarter.
Basil Al-Ghalayini, chairman of BMG, said, “Such indexes are essential for developing benchmarks for measuring the performance of investment funds in the Kingdom.”
According to Tadawul’s monthly report released on Saturday, in July TASI increased by 181.68 points to 5,778.14 at a growth rate of 3.25 percent over the close of the previous month.
The highest close level for the index during the month was 5,839.41 as on July 27.
Total equity market capitalization at the end of July reached SR1.11 trillion, increasing by 3.59 percent over June. The total value of shares traded in July fell 32.75 percent to SR100.39. The total number of shares traded declined 41.84 percent to 3.68 billion shares compared to 6.33 billion shares traded in June. The total number of transactions executed during July also fell 21.34 percent to 3.13 million compared to 3.98 million trades for the month of June. Number of trading days during July were 21, against 22 trading days during June.
The Tadawul report also said the percentage share of Saudi nationals from the market trades was 92.6 percent for selling (SR92.92 billion) and 89.8 percent for buying (SR90.16 billion) in July.
The percentage share of Saudi companies from the market trades was 1.8 percent for selling (SR1.82 billion) and 4.3 percent for buying (SR4.29 billion).
The percentage share of investment funds from the market trades was 1.6 percent for selling (SR1.63 billion) and 2.1 percent for buying (SR2.14 billion).
The percentage share of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) nationals from the market trades was 1.5 percent for selling (SR1.51 billion) and 1.2 percent for buying (SR1.25 billion).
The percentage share of Arab residents in Saudi Arabia from the market trades was 1.8 percent for selling (SR1.78 billion) and 1.7 percent for buying (SR1.74 billion). The percentage share of foreigners resident in Saudi Arabia from the market trades was 0.2 percent for selling (SR212.04 million) and 0.2 percent for buying (SR180.47 million).
The percentage share of foreigners via swap agreement from the market trades was 0.5 percent for selling (SR513.44 million) and 0.6 percent for buying (SR631.89 million).