JEDDAH, 19 September 2005 — Saudi stocks recovered slightly after an early plunge as the Tadawul All Shares Index (TASI) closed yesterday at 14,919.40, still down 69.97 points from Saturday’s closing.
After opening at 14,989.37, the index dropped as low as 14,785.89 points in the morning session.
Out of 77 stocks traded, 49 were down while 27 were trading higher yesterday.
All the sector indices were down as the Industrial index closed 99.89 points lower at 39,837.47. The Banking index also fell 86.18 points at 32,509.23. The Electricity and Telecom indices dropped by 1.74 percent and 1.14 percent, respectively.
Eastern Agriculture shares soared by 5.62 percent at SR235, followed by Saudi Industrial Development Co. by 5.57 percent at SR237, Ahmed H. Fitaihi Co. by 5.32 percent at SR317, National Agriculture Marketing Co. by 4.48 percent at SR233.25 and Aseer Trading, Tourism and Manufacturing Co. by 4.39 percent at SR689.
However, Gizan Agriculture shares plunged 3.03 percent at SR303.75, followed by Al-Baha Investment and Development Co. by 2.59 percent at SR216.50.
Saudi Electricity Co. shares also dropped by 1.74 percent at SR141.
Zamil Industrial Investment Co.’s shares gained 1.75 percent yesterday at SR566.75 as its board of directors met on Saturday in Dammam to discuss the strategy to seek potential growth in its existing and prospective local and regional markets, meeting the high demand on the company’s different products produced at its three manufacturing facilities (Zamil Steel, Zamil Air Conditioners and Zamil Glass).
Saudi Basic Industries Corp.’s shares fell slightly at SR1,645 despite the company’s intention to invest $70 billion within the next 15 years.
Financial analyst Dr. Abdullatif Basheikh said third quarter results of companies would help dealers make decisions on investing in stocks. He also said that increase in the capital of a joint stock company would usually lead to rising its stock prices. He advised new investors to put their money in industrial and cement stocks.
Meanwhile, according to the Kuwait-based Global Investment House report received here yesterday the GCC markets saw rise in trading activity in August with the investors taking new positions which triggered a rally in select markets.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE indices rebounded sharply erasing their July’s declines as they notched double digit gains in August. However, Bahrain and Oman stock markets witnessed selling pressure as their representative indices recorded modest monthly declines.
The GCC markets have been vacillating quite a bit in the last couple of months. However, in terms of YTD growth, Qatar and UAE market have now recorded more than 100 percent gains indicating the strong investor’s interest in these markets. Saudi Arabia is not too far behind with YTD growth of 81.05 percent at the end of August. The heavy trading volumes and transaction activity indicates that not only the institutional players but the retail investors too are taking positions which is good for the overall capital market environment in the GCC region.
The trading activity on the GCC bourses witnessed a rebound as the total volume of shares traded on the GCC exchanges increased to a whopping 9.5 billion shares as compared to 5.9 billion shares reported in the previous month.
The market capitalization of the markets too reported a strong increase with the Saudi stock market capitalization reaching $574.33 billion at the end of August as compared to $506.8 billion reported at the end of the previous month.
In August, the aggregate market depth was heavily tilted toward the advancers as 293 stocks reported monthly gains as compared to 116 decliners.
Saudi market’s strong growth is evident from the fact that out of 77 listed stocks only 2 reported a monthly decline. Qatar and UAE markets also witnessed broad-based rally as investors flocked the markets, taking new positions.
