Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index reflecting a 4-day fall during the week, closed at 6,982.89 points last week, trimming roughly sixty points for the entire week. The TASI set out with a small gain of 0.2 percent on first day but subsequent trading sent it lower and lower to drop 0.86 percent for the entire session. It went 34 points above and 88 points below the break-even line last week.
The market capitalization of Saudi stock exchange reached to SR 1.43 trillion, decreasing nearly half percent from the previous week's value. Northern Region Cement Company shares began trading on Tadawul last week, contributing its worth to the market cap. Its volume set sold about 292.2 million shares, which equates 20.9 percent of total market volume. The value of these shares totaled SR 7.7 billion, a relative market share of 21 percent.
All market cap indices ended the week in the red zone.
Sectoral performance was negative, as 12 out of the 15 sectors closed in downward territory, paring an aggregate of 674 points for the entire week. Media and Publishing posted the largest losses, falling 4.59 percent to close the week below 3,000-mark. Building & Construction followed it, going down 2.85 percent last week. Only three sectors including Hotel & Tourism, the best performer (up 2.82 percent), moved higher from previous week's level.
Most of heavyweights ended lower last week, with Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co. (SAFCO) dipping by 3.04 percent, Al-Rajhi Bank 2.89 percent, Saudi Telecom Co. 2.44 percent and bellwether SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) 2.13 percent. On the positive side, Riyad Bank and Kingdom Holding Co. managed for a weekly gain, advancing 2.61 percent and 1.99 percent respectively.
Decliners outnumbered the advancers by a margin of 110 to 40 and the prices of 7 companies remained unchanged last week. Furthermore, upside-downside volume ratio of 0.8:1 remained slightly weak.
Tourism Enterprises Co. (+12.02 percent) and Bank Albilad (+9.21 percent) showing notable weekly gains became the top performers among all Saudi companies. While, Amana Cooperative Insurance showing excessive losses of 12.25 percent became the major decliner for the second straight week.
Most of the major benchmark indices at GCC stock markets ended the week in green.
The benchmark GulfBase GCC General Index closed the week slightly lower at 4,064.7 points level, shedding 20.53 points or half percent for the entire week.
