JEDDAH, 20 December 2006 — The announcement of largest-ever national budget for 2007 failed to impress the Saudi stock market yesterday. The Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI) plunged 357.14 points, or 4.33 percent, to close below 8,000-point mark at 7,890.50.
Out of 85 stocks traded, only three were in the positive territory, while all other stocks declined yesterday. The only gainers yesterday were Samba Financial Group and Banque Saudi Fransi in the banking sector and Saudi Fisheries in the Agriculture sector.
The stock market turnover was over SR12.74 billion yesterday.
According to the information available on the Tadawul website, Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & Company shares will start trading on the Saudi stock market from Saturday.
The shares will be traded in a special trading from 10:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for three days in the beginning.
Alhokair’s ten-day IPO, which ran from Oct. 7-16, collected over SR2.4 billion ($640 million).
Tadawul website information also said shares of Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem), which started trading on the Tadawul on Nov. 11, will be added in the index on the basis of last Sunday’s closing price. Sipchem shares, which are trading in the Industrial sector, fell 1.48 percent to SR50 yesterday.
Shares in Al-Babtain Power & Telecommunication Co., after soaring 50 percent on debut on the Tadawul on Dec. 12, tumbled 10 percent yesterday to close at SR49.50.
Shares of Arab National Bank also dropped slightly yesterday to SR106 despite its announcement on Monday that it would raise its capital by 40 percent to SR4.55 billion through a bonus share issue.
SABB shares declined 2.12 percent to SR115.25 yesterday. SABB also announced through Tadawul website yesterday that it would distribute a dividend of SR3.75 per share or a total SR1.5 billion for 2006, 85 percent more than last year’s total dividend.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp.’s (SABIC’s) shares edged lower by 4.45 percent to SR107.25 yesterday as it said on Monday that it would pay shareholders SR2.5 dividend for the second half of this year in addition to the SR1.5 paid during the first half of this year.
However, Hussein Al-Khater, a stock market analyst, predicted that the index would make strong gains in the coming days. He said many traders are expected to conclude many deals in order to make quick gains to compensate their past losses. “It’s quite natural that many dealers would make use of the rise in the index,” he pointed out. He said the SABIC decision to distribute a dividend of SR2.5 for each share as well as the move by ANB to distribute extra two shares for each five shares would create optimism among investors.
In the telecom sector, shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and Etihad Etisalat dropped 3.11 percent and 5.12 percent, respectively.
