Banking stocks continue to gain

The Saudi stock market ended yesterday's trading session solidly in the green. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed up 73.42 points or 1.04 percent to 7,126.71 yesterday, after being up as much as 84 points earlier.
On year-to-date basis, the index showed a sharp uplift of 4.79 percent.
Large cap with 1.34 percent upward jump remained prominent among market cap indices.
Most of the major sectors closed in the green territory, accumulating an aggregate of over 800 points. The banks and financial services sector continued its upward march for the third straight day, adding 373 points or 2.45 percent further. The Saudi Investment Bank, SABB and Alinma Bank played well, advancing 4.19 percent, 3.68 percent and 3.42 percent respectively. Alinma with trades over 44.6 million shares also topped the volume chart, closing the day at SR 13.6. It captured 19.4 percent of the total volume set sold at Tadawul.
On the negative side, four sectors ended in red, trimming roughly 60 points for the day. Insurance sector posted the largest losses, falling 1.67 percent to 1,320.51.
The advancers outnumbered declining stocks on the Tadawul (market); as for 55 percent stocks that gained, 32 percent ended lower and 13 percent remained unchanged.
Dallah Healthcare Holding Company made the biggest jump among all Saudi equities, surging by 6.34 percent to close at SR 75.5.
On the other hand, Amana Cooperative Insurance has been showing a volatile performance for the previous few days, flip-flopping in the top and worst positions consecutively. Again the company plunged to a maximum of 9.95 percent to SR 99.5.
Seven out of top ten heavyweight equities finished to the upside, with Al-Rajhi Bank increasing by 3.27 percent, bellwether SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) 2.15 percent and Samba Financial Group 1.73 percent.