Regional crisis blamed for 4% Tadawul plunge

The fundamentals for the Saudi stock market still look good despite Tuesday's sharp plunge in the Tadawul All-Share Index, analysts and economists told Arab News.
"The Saudi market has performed strongly so far this year and also in the last few weeks, so a correction was expected," Farouk Miah, head of equity research at NCB Capital, said.
TASI tumbled 4.1 percent, its largest one-day loss since August 2011, to below the psychologically important 8,000-point level. The index closed 331.94 points lower at 7,722.70.
Brent crude jumped to a 6-month high over $114 a barrel amid signs that Western powers were considering a military strike against Syria.
"We believe that the Saudi stock market overreacted to the news, it was a buying (not selling) opportunity for investors," Beshr Bakheet, chairman of Bakheet Investment Group, said.
The value of traded shares reached SR8.49 billion with volume of 377 million shares. Bakheet described this trend as positive.
But John Sfakianakis, chief investment strategist at Masic, a Riyadh-based investment firm, told Arab News that the real estate sector has had a very good rally over the last few months and a correction is due.
He added: “Some names have grown by more than 30 percent in a few months and investors want to take some profits. The majority of the companies publicly traded should benefit from the high demand in real estate projects be it in the form of housing or bigger development projects that are partly residential, commercial and industrial.”