In a brief speech at the launching ceremony, Al-Suwailemi welcomed Al-Sorayai to the stock market, adding that Al-Sorayai is the fourth company to be listed in the Saudi bourse this year.

He said that for the first time in the history of the Saudi stock market an intermediary company took part in Al-Sorayai's IPO (initial public offering), receiving applications from investors. He hoped that this would strengthen the market. The Al-Sorayai IPO was oversubscribed 450 percent with the number of subscribers reaching more than 1.4 million, the company said in a statement.

Al-Suwailemi said Al-Sorayai would be the 139th company listed on Tadawul's industrial investment sector. On his part, Al-Sorayai spoke about his company's progress during the last 30 years and the efforts made to become a shareholding company. He thanked everybody who contributed to make this achievement.

The SR27 Al-Sorayai shares opened at SR35.40 and reached a high of SR36.50 and a low of SR32.90 before closing at SR33.10 on Monday, a gain of 22.59 percent on the first day of trading. The value of Al-Sorayai shares reached SR435.52 million on Monday.

The market Monday closed flat with a very minor gain of 8.04 points to close at 6,487.19 points, up 0.12 percent. The sector activity was split wide with 8 gaining sectors ranging from 0.08 percent by the Banks and Financial Services Sector to 0.98 percent by the Cement sector. Losses in the remaining 7 sectors ranged from 0.03 percent by the Agriculture & Food Industries Sector to 1.63 percent by the Hotel and Tourism Sector. The overall market breadth remained positive with 53 advancers against 53 decliners, giving an AD ratio of 1.00, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market commentary.

In the banking sector, shares in Riyad Bank, Samba Financial Group, the Saudi Investment Bank and Bank AlJazira declined on Monday. However, shares in Bank Albilad jumped 4.43 percent to close at SR20.05.

Saudi Arabian Cooperative Insurance Company was the top loser as its shares fell 4.58 percent to SR62.50.

Zamil Industrial Investment Company (Zamil Industrial) shares declined 0.41 percent to SR61.25 as the board of directors gave an approval on Monday for establishing a new factory to manufacture Stonewool insulation products with a total investment of SR300 million utilizing state-of-the-art technology to produce world class products for the region.

The plant will be funded through internally generated funds and other financial institutes. The plant is expected to be operational in 2012. The financial impact will be in 2012, the company said in a statement on Tadawul website.