JEDDAH, 16 May 2006 — Shares of Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG), the first Arab media company to go public, jumped 106.52 percent on debut on the Kingdom’s stock market yesterday.
SRMG shares, on Tadawul’s Services Sector, began trading for the first time yesterday after the company floated 24 million shares or 30 percent of its capital worth SR800 million in an initial public offering (IPO) last month. The IPO, which started April 8, was oversubscribed nearly four times. The IPO saw as many as 1.6 million investors purchasing the company’s shares at the rate of SR46 per share. Samba Financial Group, which managed the IPO, allocated 15 shares to each individual subscriber.
SRMG shares opened at SR91 and reached as high as SR110 during the day before closing at SR95 yesterday. SRMG was the top gainer followed by Savola Group, Al-Ahsa for Development Co., Alujain Corporation and Al-Baha Investment & Development Co. with gains of 10 percent each.
Over SR1.88 billion worth of SRMG shares changed hands yesterday.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed slightly higher yesterday after gaining 17.11 percent in two days after the Kingdom appointed Abdul Rahman Al-Tuwaijeri, secretary-general of the Supreme Economic Council (SEC), as acting chief of the Capital Market Authority (CMA).
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah decided Friday to replace Jammaz Al-Suhaimi after the index dropped to a 14-month low.
TASI closed 22.6 points higher yesterday at 11,859.86 as out of 80 companies traded, shares of 67 companies went up while 13 firms were in the red.
The market turnover also almost doubled from SR10 billion on Sunday to SR19.52 billion yesterday.
