The benchmark Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) rose 24.95 points to finish at 9,823.4 after trading between 9,870.76 and 9,760.76. Its trading range expanded to 110 points, adding 0.25 percent for the entire day.

On an YTD basis, TASI registered a positive return of 15.1 percent.

Only Large cap index closed higher among market cap indices.

The heavyweights Samba Financial Group, SABB and Al-Rajhi Bank performed well relatively, surging by 2.83 percent, 2.45 percent and 1.12 percent respectively.

Most of the major sectors closed in the downward territory.

Banks and Financial Services sector with an upward jump of 304.6 points or 1.55 percent remained prominent among sectoral indices, closing the day at 19,895.04.

The insurance sector, on the other hand, posted the largest losses, turning down 1.57 percent to 1,407.76. Decliners outnumbered the advancers by a huge margin of 105 to 41 and the prices of 14 companies remained unchanged.

Share price of Saudi Indian Company for Co- operative Insurance dived to a decline of 9.32 percent, closing the day at SR56.19.

Banque Saudi Fransi turned in a splendid performance among all Saudi stocks, soaring up 7.25 percent to close the day at SR32.7.

This is the highest closing level of the Bank in almost five years.

A good amount of turnover 419.9 million shares worth SR12.6 billion changed hands on the Saudi stock market.

This turnover reflects an increase of 21.8 percent on volume basis and 17.8 percent in terms of liquidity over the previous levels.

Saudi Kayan appeared to be the most active stock of the day, liquidating 90.6 million shares, which equates 21.6 percent of overall market volume. Its volume went 4.4 times high over the 50-day average level.

The value of these shares totaled SR1.5 billion, a relative market share of 12 percent.

Only Kayan witnessed a positive change among most active stocks, gaining 3.54 percent to SR16.93.