JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s stock market posted the strongest gains in the region on Tuesday, rising 1.1 percent with the help of heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), which rallied 3.5 percent to SR74.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed 1.11 percent or 63.3 points higher at 5,754.86.
Only one sector closed negative in Tuesday’s trading session. The media sector is the only sector that closed with a loss, down 0.07 percent, otherwise, all sectors closed with gains, which ranged from 0.20 percent in the Retail sector to 2.59 percent in the Petrochemical sector. Overall market breadth was positive, with 99 advancers and 18 decliners giving an AD ratio of 5.5, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market commentary.
The top gainer on Tuesday was Allianz SF as its shares surged 9.74 percent to close at SR84.50. AXA-Cooperative shares increased 4.49 percent to SR37.20.
Shares in SABB Takaful plunged by 9.84 percent to SR39.40 on Tuesday. Saudi Fisheries shares fell 1.64 percent to SR47.90.
Al-Rajhi Bank shares gained 0.74 percent to SR68. However, shares in Riyad Bank, Saudi Hollandi Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi and Arab National Bank declined on Tuesday. The Saudi stock market will remain closed for Eid Al-Fitr holiday from Sept. 19 to Sept. 23.
Trading will resume after the holiday at normal market opening hours on Sept. 26 as the Saudi market is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Meanwhile, Tadawul and Bloomberg Finance LP signed an agreement on Monday under which Bloomberg becomes the third international index provider after Dow Jones Indexes and Standard and Poor’s to offer indexes on the Saudi market.
According to information available on Tadawul website, Bloomberg is authorized to use real-time Tadawul price and other data to create indices, which may measure the performance of the Saudi stock market and may serve as the underlying for third-party investment products such as mutual funds, ETFs (exchange traded funds) and other financial products that enable investors to participate in the performance of the Saudi stock market.
In other regional markets, Kuwait telecom firm Zain slumped for a second day on Tuesday as uncertainty over a possible stake sale in the group rattled investors, while banks helped lift markets in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Zain shares plummeted 5.48 percent to 1.46 dinars ($5.08) per share, weighing on the Kuwait benchmark, which lost 0.3 percent to 7,795 points.
Markets in the UAE extended a three-day run of gains, with Abu Dhabi’s benchmark adding 0.7 percent to 2,977 points and Dubai rallying 1.3 percent to 1,996 points.
Qatar’s benchmark closed up 0.7 percent to 7,158 points, its third straight session of wins.
Bahrain’s main measure edged up 0.1 percent to 1,524 points.
— With input from agencies