Tadawul index marches upward

The Saudi stock market continued its upward march and managed a fifth straight rise yesterday, accumulating nearly 48 points further.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) set out with 4.4 points fall yesterday but subsequent trading sent it higher and higher to close at 7,355.27 points, adding 0.66 percent for the entire day. Its trading range expanded to 60 points as compared to 51 points of previous day.
On year-to-date basis, the TASI’s yield reached over eight percent.
All market cap indices ended in the safe area.
Most of the sector indices ended positively, with nine sectors showing a collection over 621 points. Retail made the biggest jump among sectoral indices, posting a reasonable growth of 2.8 percent to 9,208.42. Agriculture & Food Industries sector followed it, advancing one and half percent for the day.
On the other hand, six sectors lost an aggregate of 60 points yesterday.
Real Estate Development sector suffered worst, going down by 0.65 percent to close at 4,218.57.
Six out of top ten heavy weights closed higher from previous day's levels, with market leader SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) growing 1.61 percent and Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co. (SAFCO) 1.01 percent.
Market breadth was positive, whereby 83 symbols closed in green and 40 closed in red, while 33 remained unchanged.
Arabian Shield Cooperative Insurance and Fawaz Abdulaziz AlHokair Company played well among all Saudi companies, marching higher by 7.30 percent and 5.34 percent respectively.
Saudi Mobile Telecom-munications Co. (Zain) topped the volume chart, liquidating 48.9 million shares and capturing roughly 20 percent of the overall market volume.
Tadawul total volume set sold approximately 250 million shares, a decrease of 30.9 percent as compared to previous level.
The 50-day average for trading volume is closer to 217.1 million shares.