JEDDAH, 15 November 2006 — The Saudi stock market continued to plunge yesterday with the Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closing 407.84 points or 4.84 percent down at 8,025.68.
All the indexes were lower. Shares of only five companies were in the positive territory, while all other shares declined yesterday.
The banking index was 885.21 points down at 23,017.94 as shares of two banks - Banque Saudi Fransi and Arab national Bank - edged higher while shares of other major banks fell. Shares of Al-Rajhi Bank, Bank Albilad and Bank Aljazira dropped over 8 percent each.
The other three gainers yesterday were Zamil Industrial Investment Co., Saudi International Petrochemical Co. (Sipchem) and Bishah Agriculture. Sipchem shares rose slightly to close at its initial public offering (IPO) price of SR55 after dropping 17.73 percent on debut early this week.
However, Hamad Al-Sayari, governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), downplayed the effect of the dissolution of some investment funds by banks on the stock market, saying such operations were very limited compared to the volume of total stock transactions. He estimated the value of dissolved funds at SR59 million. “If we know that the total value of exchanges during the past period was SR13 billion, we can easily understand the dissolution had no effect on the market,” he told reporters in Riyadh on Monday.
The value of traded shares also halved to SR7.36 billion compared to SR15.58 billion on Monday.
According to the National Commercial Bank’s (NCB’s) market review published on Sunday, the cumulative value of shares traded has reached SR4.89 trillion since the beginning of this year, about 19 percent more than what was achieved for the entire 2005. In 2006, the value of shares traded is expected to surpass SR5.20 trillion mark, about 26 percent increase over SR4.14 trillion for 2005.
The cement, services, electrical, telecommunication and insurance sectors were in the red yesterday.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) shares also dropped 3.48 percent to close at SR104 yesterday. Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) shares plunged 8.20 percent to SR14, while shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and Etihad Etisalat were lower by 3.95 percent, and 8.88 percent, respectively.
