JEDDAH: The Saudi stock market fell on Sunday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) dropped 0.32 percent to 5,767.94.
Only 4 sectors closed in positive territory on Sunday, namely Telecom (0.04 percent), Energy (0.29 percent), Cement (0.42 percent) and Retail (1.56 percent). On the other hand, 11 sectors closed with losses ranging from 0.03 percent in the Agriculture & Food sector to 1.03 percent in the Multi-Investment sector. Overall market breadth was negative, with 31 advancers and 87 decliners posting an AD ratio of 0.36, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its market commentary on Sunday.
The market lost almost 80 points in intraday trading during Sunday’s session before coming back up to close with a drop of 18.37 points. In addition, market liquidity continues to decline, coming in at a mere SR3.7 billion on Sunday, the FTH said.
SABB Takaful was the top gainer on Sunday as its shares surged by 4.72 percent to SR94.25, followed by Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Co. with a 3.62 percent increase to SR31.50.
Shares in the newly-listed ACE Arabia Cooperative Co. fell 8.47 percent to SR67.50.
Meanwhile, second quarter results announced by 127 of the 130 Saudi listed joint-stock companies boosted investors’ confidence for a rebound in the equity market and expectations for yet another year of positive economic growth, the Jeddah-based National Commercial Bank (NCB) said in its market review on Sunday.
TASI is maintaining an upward movement in line with a slight pickup in bank credit in the second quarter of this year.
The positive earnings were reported by 95 companies with a combined total of SR17.20 billion, while those of 32 firms reported losses totaling SR1.34 billion, thus producing an overall positive balance of SR15.87 billion in the second quarter of 2009.
The earnings were 53.3 percent higher when compared with the first quarter figures of SR10.35 billion, the NCB report said. However, the upbeat earnings picture of second quarter overturns if the first two quarters results were collated across 127 reporting companies. Accordingly, net-earnings across 127 firms totaled SR26.22 billion and dropped 44.2 percent in the first half of 2009 over first half of 2008 with the largest drop reported by Energy & Utilities (-136.5 percent), followed by Petrochemicals Industries (-90 percent). Meanwhile the sectors that reported positive earnings growth were Industrial Investment (13.1 percent), followed by Hotels & Tourism (514 percent), and to a lesser extent, Insurance (28 percent).