JEDDAH, 15 September 2005 — The Saudi stock index is slowly inching toward the 15,000 mark and analysts said the index will achieve this landmark by next week.
The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) closed marginally higher at 14,818.97 points yesterday.
The Industrial and other indices recorded small gains except the Electricity and the Telecom indices which declined slightly.
The Saudi Basic Industries Corp. shares failed to get major boost from the news that Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings have assigned their corporate credit ratings to SABIC, highlighting SABIC’s worldwide leading market positions in base and commodity petrochemicals, fertilizers and steel products.
According to Standard & Poor’s rating, SABIC is the world’s third-largest producer of ethylene, largest producer of polymers, a leading producer of fertilizer and the Gulf region’s largest steel producer.
Fitch Ratings reflected on SABIC’s strong profitability (median 5-year EBITDA margin of 34 percent). Margins are affected by significant cyclicality but are consistently much higher through the cycle than for other international petrochemical groups.
SABIC also concluded yesterday a contract with Aker Kvaerner and China Petrochemical Corporation (SINOPEC) for the engineering, procurement and construction of its world-scale Polyolefins complex at YANSAB, in Yanbu.
Yousef Al-Zamel, vice president, SABIC Basic Chemicals, signed the contract for SABIC, for Aker Kvaerner its president, Wim Van der Zande and Wang Zhenan for SINOPEC.
However, SABIC’s shares closed 0.22 percent higher at SR1,622 yesterday.
The Agricultural sector index gained 71.99 points to close at 5,070.99 as Qassim Agriculture shares jumped 5.36 percent yesterday at SR226.
Amiantit and Saudi Export shares rose by 4.88 percent at SR317 and 4.28 percent at SR707, respectively.
Al Ahsa for Development Co. shares fell by 1.64 percent at SR345.25 followed by National Agriculture Development Co. (NADEC) shares by 0.95 percent at SR520.
The Saudi British Bank shares also suffered 0.71 percent loss at SR1,285.
Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) shares dropped slightly at SR145.75 and Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) shares fell to SR934.
Out of 77 stocks, 51 stocks were trading higher while 24 were down yesterday.
In a related development, the Founders Committee of Dana Gas, the first regional private-sector gas resource company to offer shares to the public, yesterday announced in Dubai details of its IPO of 2.06 billion dirhams, having received the necessary regulatory approvals. The IPO, which represents 34.33 percent of the company’s capital, will open for public subscription on Sept. 20 and will close on Oct. 2.
The shares offered in the IPO are priced at a par value of 1 dirham each, plus the customary one fils per share offering costs.
A statement by the Founders Committee received here said that nearly a third of the offering, aggregating 700 million dirhams, has been reserved for small investors who are citizens of the GCC. Each investor in this tranche will receive a planned guaranteed allocation of 3,000 shares in the public offer. To be eligible for the allocation in this tranche, small investors must apply for a minimum of 5,000 shares, with the maximum application fixed at 75,000 shares.
