Insurance sector remains in limelight

The Saudi stock market ended yesterday's trading session solidly in the green. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index (TASI) recorded a handsome gain of 1.81 percent, which is the highest intra-day increase since the start of 2013.
The index continued pacing its way higher throughout the day to achieve 132.89 points in a single session, closing at 7,463.37. On year-to-date basis, it showed a yield of 9.74 percent.
The market cap indices all finished to the upside, with Micro cap increasing over 2.5 percent.
All sectors extended gains except Hotel & Tourism, which pared 98 points or 0.85 percent. Remaining 14 sectors showed a collection of 1,453.3 points jointly.
Insurance made the biggest jump among all sector indices, surging by 3.56 percent and closing at 1,188.65. Real Estate Development also continued its upward march, marking another gain of 3.19 percent.
Top ten heavyweights rose from previous day’s levels, with Samba Financial Group advancing by 3.09 percent, Al-Rajhi Bank 1.81 percent and Riyad Bank 1.66 percent. Only Etihad Etisalat Co. (Mobily) ended without any change. There were 152 net advancing issues, a largely strong market breadth.
Saudi United Cooperative Insurance and Tabuk Agriculture Development Co. remained at top positions among all Saudi equities, marching higher by 9.84 percent and 9.77 percent respectively.
For the day, only Tourism Enterprise Co. went downward, showing a reduction of SR 11.25 or 9.96 percent to close at SR 101.75.
The top five most active stocks also performed well, with Saudi Mobile Telecommunications Co. (Zain) moving up 4.16 percent, Atheeb Telecom 3.09 percent and Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate 3.03 percent.
Most of the trading was concentrated in Dar Al-Arkan with 40.7 million shares, capturing 13.7 percent of Tadawul volume.
Roughly 296 million shares worth SR 6.5 billion were poured into the market.