JEDDAH, 28 August 2005 — After a record surge last week, the big drops in Industrial and Banking indices pulled Saudi stock market down slightly yesterday.
After opening at 14,833.69, the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) went as low as 14,705.03 during the day before recovering to 14,817.19, still down 16.50 points from Thursday’s closing.
Fifty-six stocks were lower while 21 were up out of 77 stocks traded yesterday.
The Industrial index declined 581.30 points yesterday to close at 38,760.37 and the Banking index also closed 239.93 points lower at 32,467.52.
Shares at Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), Saudi Arabia’s largest listed firm in terms of market capitalization, closed yesterday at SR1,615, down 1.58 percent.
Zamil Industrial Investment Co. stock also closed 1.97 percent lower at SR546 yesterday. Most of the bank stocks were trading lower except the Saudi British Bank (SABB) which closed slightly higher at SR1,300.
Saudi Livestock made hefty gain of 9.94 percent with volume of 12,777,228 to close at SR91.25, followed by Saudi Hotels & Resort Areas Co. stock which closed at SR444.50, up 7.82 percent, Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) rose 7.50 percent at SR136.25, Bishah Agriculture jumped 6.11 percent at SR282 and Tihama was trading 5.67 percent higher at SR298.
Jouf Agriculture suffered a massive 3.12 percent fall with volume of 248,296 at SR232.50 yesterday.
Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) shares were trading 2.68 percent higher at SR975.50 while Etihad Etisalat shares closed at SR663, up 2 percent.
Almarai shares were slightly higher at SR783 while Saudi Dairy & Foodstuff Co. (SADAFCO) shares closed lower at SR579.75.
Yousuf Al-Ruhaimy, a technical analyst of stock index, expressed his optimism that the Saudi stock index would cross the 15,000 barrier within no time, given the rising oil prices and increasing liquidity. Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, he also warned that the index could come down by 150 to 250 points as a result of hectic trading to make quick profit.
Muqbil Al-Dukair, an economist, also believed that the index would go up because of soaring oil prices, good results of companies, economic stability of the country, the royal gesture raising salaries of public servants and the government decision of making huge allocations for various welfare projects. “Because of above reasons I believe the index would cross 15,000 barrier,” he added.
