Saudi Arabia’s benchmark Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) dropped 31.46 points or 0.33 percent to 9,522.1 points on Tuesday. After falling over 140 points during the session it bottomed out at 9,412.93 points level and started to rise again but ended below the break-even line.

Micro cap with 1.52 percent upward jump remained prominent among market cap indices. Most of the sector indices ended negatively, trimming an aggregate of 555 points. Only four sectors including Real Estate Development, the best performer (up 1.3 percent), closed in the green territory.

Retail and telecom sectors logged the largest losses, slipping 1.26 percent and 1.0 percent respectively. Nine out of top ten heavyweight equities finished to the downside, with SABB dipping by 0.96 percent and market leader SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) 0.85 percent. Only Kingdom Holding witnessed a positive change, gaining 0.28 percent and closing at SR24.87.

Market breadth was almost balanced with 72 issues witnessing advances against 71 others recording declines.

Al Alamiya for Cooperative Insurance recorded an all-time closing high of SR150.49, reflecting an increment of 9.92 percent for the day. New player Umm Al-Qura Cement Company continued its upward march, marking another gain of 9.85 percent to close at SR23.4.

On the other side of the spectrum, Saudi Airlines Catering Company suffered worst of all equities, going down by 3.94 percent.

Most of the trading was concentrated in the Alinma Bank, which liquidated more than 36 million shares, a relative market share of 15.7 percent. The bank also contributed 8.6 percent (SR657.5 million) to the overall market liquidity.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabian Cooperative Insurance volume went 3.4 times high over its 50-day average level, liquidating 1.7 million shares. Tadawul turnover set sold approximately 234 million shares worth SR7.7 billion, a decrease of 26 to 30 percent over the 50-day average levels.