Saudi stocks’ prices surged for the third straight week, witnessing the long-term upward trend last week.

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) reflecting an upward march throughout the week ended in the green territory at 7,613.35 points, up 209.2 points or 2.83 percent, from its previous weekend close at 7,404.12 points.

Its weekly trading range expanded to 267 points as compared to previous week's 121 points.

TASI also logged a healthy YTD return of nearly 12 percent.

Total market capitalization of Saudi stock exchange reached at SR 1.53 trillion as compared to previous week's SR 1.49 trillion, an increase of 2.34 percent. Large Cap performed well relatively as it posted a weekly growth of 3.2 percent.

Fourteen out of Tadawul's fifteen sectors witnessed a positive weekly change, accumulating an aggregate of 1,729 points.

Banks & Financial Services sector outperformed, up 914 points or 5.82 percent to close the week at 16,627.1. Arab National Bank was significant gainer in this sector, soaring up 10.7 percent in a week.

Telecom, Real Estate and Agriculture sectors followed the performance of banking sector, advancing by 2.61 percent, 2.49 percent and 2.06 percent respectively.

Only Media sector closed the week lower, declining by 3.26 percent to 2,845.72.

Samba Financial Group, SABB and Al-Rajhi Bank were key gainers among heavyweights, surging by 6.85 percent, 5.82 percent and 5.49 percent respectively. Only Kingdom holding went downward slightly, decreasing by 0.3 percent.

Weekly market breadth was positive, as rising stocks outnumbered decliners by a margin of two-to-one on the Tadawul market.

Atheeb Telecom dominated the performance among all Saudi equities, topping the weekly gainer chart with 16.6 percent positive change. Atheeb with trades over 136.6 million shares positioned itself among the most active stocks, closing the week at SR 15.45 and ranking fifth.

Zain with 206.5 million shares topped the volume chart, capturing 12.5 percent of the overall market volume.

Total equity turnover at Tadawul increased to 1.7 billion shares worth SR 35.5 billion. This turnover reflects a weekly growth of 49.3 percent on volume basis and 29.7 percent in terms of liquidity.

Furthermore, upside-downside volume ratio of 8:1 remained largely positive.

Most of the major benchmark indices at GCC stock markets ended the week in green.

The benchmark GulfBase GCC General Index closed the week higher at 4,467.85 points level, adding 56.92 points or 1.29 percent for the entire week.