Trading activity at Tadawul appeared to be extremely volatile since Tuesday. Its turnover went down by 41.2 percent and traded 273.9 million shares as compared to previous day’s 465.7 million shares.

The total value of traded shares reached SR7.1 billion as compared to previous day’s SR10.6 billion, a decline of 32.8 percent. The number of executed transactions reached 158,715 as compared to 181,794 transactions of Tuesday, a decrease of 12.7 percent.

SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) topped the value chart on the Saudi stock market with a turnover of SR447.1 million. The volume chart was led by Alinma Bank with trades of over 18.86 million shares.

Media and Real Estate Development amongst all sector indices remained top performer of the day, reflecting a growth of 2.3 percent and 1.6 percent respectively. On the other hand, Transport and Energy & Utilities sectors became the worst performer, showing a decrease of 1.12 percent and 0.96 percent respectively. Out of 149 stocks traded on Wednesday, 66 were up and 69 down while 14 remained unchanged.

Insurance stocks continued securing their position as top gainers for the third consecutive day on Wednesday with SABB Takaful and Allianz Saudi Fransi Cooperative Insurance, rising by 9.97 percent and 9.87 percent respectively. Furthermore, National Agriculture Marketing Co. became the biggest loser for the second consecutive day, down 5.76 percent.

Al Ahsa Development continued its upward march; added a 4.58 percent on 10th consecutive day, Al-Ahsa reflecting a year-to-date gain of 75 percent as its shares closed at SR 22.85.

Taiba Holding announced its audited consolidated financial results for fiscal year 2011, a massive increase of 157.05 percent in its net profit of SR236.7 million, while operating profit reported as SR218.4 million, an increase of 166.21 percent. According to company the reasons for the increase in the financial results of the year 2011 compared with the last year are due to increase in the operational efficiency of the subsidiaries.

Saudi Telecom share recommended “Strong Buy” by Global Investment House (Global). Saudi Telecom target price was reported by Global at SR44.00, with a potential upside of 21.9 percent from its market price of SR36.10 at report date, Feb. 11, 2012.