JEDDAH, 30 January 2006 — The Saudi stock market fluctuated heavily yesterday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed yesterday 64.81 points down at 18,549.82 after briefly breaking the 19,000-point barrier during the day.
The index reached intra-day high of 19,012.87 points for the first time yesterday. The index also dived as low as 18,252.67 yesterday.
The total value of traded shares reached SR42.70 billion.
Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) shares dominated the trading yesterday as its profits jumped 34 percent to SR12.45 billion in 2005.
STC shares edged higher after the profit figures were announced. They were trading 5.62 percent higher at SR1,240 yesterday. Over SR3.32 billion worth of STC shares changed hands yesterday.
However, shares of Etihad Etisalat fell 1.26 percent to SR726.
The Telecom Index closed 320.85 points higher at 7,245.69.
All other indexes closed lower yesterday.
The Banking Index dropped to 44,699.70 as shares of major banks fell except those of Al-Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp. and Saudi Hollandi Bank.
Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) shares dropped SR1,387.75 despite it reported 44 percent increase in 2005 profits. BSF net profit reached SR2.2 billion last year. The Saudi Investment Bank shares fell over 3 percent to SR1,014 and The Saudi British Bank by 2.09 percent to SR1,546 yesterday.
Bank Albilad shares closed at SR834, down 1.24 percent. Bank AlJazira and Riyad Bank shares closed lower at SR1,774 and SR856, respectively.
The Industrial Index was in the red as shares of all companies in this sector declined yesterday.
SABIC shares fell to SR1,683.
Saudia Dairy and Foodstuff Co. (SADAFCO) shares were badly hit due to the boycott call of Danish products. SADAFCO shares plunged 7.78 percent yesterday to close at SR593. The company immediately issued statements denying any links with Denmark. SADAFCO said it severed all its connections with original Danish co-founders in 1987.
Shares of agriculture companies fell heavily yesterday. Shares of big companies such as Eastern Agriculture and Jouff Agriculture dropped 9.99 percent each to close at SR854 and SR685, respectively, followed by Tabuk Agriculture by 9.98 percent to SR554.50 and Hail Agriculture by 9.97 percent to SR560.
The cement sector was also down. Shares of Arab Cement and Saudi Cement rose, while shares of all other companies edged lower yesterday.
Al-Baha Investment & Development Co. shares rose 9.98 percent to SR462.75 and Al-Mawashi Al-Mukairish United Co. by 6.65 percent to SR132.25 in the services sector.
Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) shares fell slightly to SR145.
Shares of the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI) dropped 0.67 percent to SR775.75.
Meanwhile, Abdullah Al-Suweilmy, Tadawul’s general manager, said that as part of Tadawul’s comprehensive strategy to improve operational efficiency, it was very important to implement a business software solution for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). “We selected Oracle E-Business Suite, which improved our access to real-time data, allowing us to enhance the flow of information between departments, making the entire business more efficient and further improving our service to customers,” he said.
According to analyst group IDC, there has been a five-fold surge in demand for ERP, storage, security and content management applications in the Kingdom during the last year. Much of this growth was fuelled by public sector demand.
Oracle, the world’s largest enterprise software company, has seen a large share of this business, a fact which the company’s Saudi managing director, Abdul Rahman Al-Theheiban, attributes to Oracle’s track record in training and supporting end-users.
“Tadawul’s swift and successful implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite — the new system was rolled out in less than 45 days — is considered the fastest Oracle E-Business Financial Implementation in Saudi Arabia and one of the fastest implementations in the world,” explained Al-Theheiban.
“By educating and providing ongoing support to its staff, Tadawul has been able to maximize the benefits that the Oracle solution delivers. Given the current Saudi government focus on migration to e-government services as part of an effort to modernize public sector infrastructure, we anticipate similar success stories in the very near future,” he added.
Tawfege Al-Utagey, Tadawul’s director of IT, added, “Our implementation of the Oracle E-Business Suite by an experienced Saudi team, complemented by the expertise of the Oracle Consulting group in the region, has proved that ERP projects can be rapidly rolled out for fast results and increased return on investment.”
