RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s main index ended Monday in green, thanks to strong performance as earnings season nears an end.
The Tadawul All Share Index gained 0.67 percent to end at 11,598, while the parallel market, Nomu, declined 0.58 percent to finish at 19,500.
Al Moammar Information Systems Co. declined 4 percent, despite posting a 69 percent leap in third-quarter profits to SR25 million ($6.6 million), boosted by revenue growth.
In an interview with Argaam, the information technology giant’s CEO said the third quarter’s revenues are largely derived from contracts with government agencies, which contribute 65 percent of revenue.
In the third quarter of 2022, the value of under-way projects hit SR2.4 billion, Abdullah AlGhamdi said, expecting new projects to be worth SR400-500 million in the fourth quarter.
The top official said that the results show significant and continuous improvements in the company's business, and predicted this growth and improvement to continue as the company is able to turn a strong share of business and contracts into revenues to improve efficiency.
In connection with the research cooperation project and technical patents with NEOM, AlGhamdi said that the project aims to provide proposals, consultations and auditing services to the research institutions, as well as establishing applied research cooperation.
Its outputs will support NEOM's goals in emerging technologies, cognitive computing, and artificial general intelligence.
The CEO predicted strong business growth and performance for the fourth quarter compared to previous quarters.
Due to the strong growth of the Saudi economy and the robust demand for communications and information technology, this pattern will continue until 2023, he added.
As far as performance of other companies is concerned, Arabian Drilling Co. surged 23 percent to lead the gainers, after it made its debut on Tadawul on Nov. 7.
The company offered 26.7 million shares, or 30 percent of its capital, on the main market for SR100 each, of which 90 percent was allocated to participating parties and 10 percent to individual investors.
The value of orders placed totaled SR2 billion, with 816 percent of subscriptions covered.
Saudi oil giant Aramco ended the session 0.29 percent lower, almost a week after announcing that its profit had surged 39 percent in the third quarter of 2022, surpassing the average of analysts’ forecasts.
Profits at the most profitable oil company in the world hit SR159 billion after revenue soared 51 percent to SR544 billion.
Taiba Investment Co. gained 1.44 percent, after turning to profits of SR98 million for the first nine months of 2022, against a net loss of SR53 million in the same period a year earlier.
Saudi National Bank, the Kingdom’s largest lender, increased 1.37 percent, while the Kingdom’s most valuable bank, Al Rajhi, gained 0.94 percent.
Methanol Chemicals Co. added 0.16 percent, after it signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to co-invest in the manufacture of methyl diethanolamine for SR450 million with a company owned by a number of industrial entities and a government fund.
