Cement sector posts solid gains

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) yesterday rose 0.42 percent to finish at 7,435.19 after trading between 7,353.38 and 7,435.19.
It went 50.7 points below the level of opening bell earlier yesterday but subsequent trading sent the index up to accumulate more than 31.07 points for the entire session.
On year-to-date basis, the TASI logged an attractive return of 9.32 percent.
The market cap indices all finished to the upside, with Micro cap advancing 0.65 percent yesterday.
Most of the major sectors closed in the green territory, accumulating an aggregate of 288 points. Cement outdid the rest of the Saudi sectors, rising 0.88 percent to close the day at 6,869.84.
On the negative side, three sectors including Tourism — the worst performer (down 0.67 percent) closed a little bit lower.
The market breadth with advance-decline ratio of 1.65:1 remained favorable.
Share price of Al Alamiya for Cooperative Insurance rallied to a maximum growth of 10 percent to SR 60.5, clinching the spot as top gainer amongst Saudi stocks.
Most of heavy weights closed in green, showing small gains from previous level.
SABB outperformed among large caps, reflecting an increment of 1.32 percent.
Only Kingdom Holding went downward slightly 0.8 percent to SR 18.6.
Most active stocks also showed a positive change for the day. Atheeb Telecom remained prominent, surging 9.81 percent and closing at SR 14.55.
Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate continued to dominate the trading activity at Tadawul.
Roughly 33.7 million shares of the company were liquidated yesterday, which reflected a 13.5 percent relative market share.