JEDDAH, 19 June 2007 — Shares of another insurance company Saudi IAIC Insurance Cooperative Co., (Salama), which made debut at Tadawul yesterday, jumped 500 percent after SABB Takaful shares rose 497.50 percent on the first day of trading on Saturday.
The stock market, however, fell 1.49 percent or 103.86 points to 6,870.60 points yesterday.
The SR10 Salama shares opened at SR45 and reached as high as SR64.75 before closing at SR60 yesterday. Shares of Salama, the fifth company to be traded in the insurance sector, touched low of SR45 during the day.
The insurance sector earlier was dominated by the National Company for Cooperative Insurance (NCCI). Its shares, however, dropped 1.28 percent yesterday to close at SR96.50.
Shares of the newly-listed SABB Takaful rose 9.92 percent yesterday to SR72, while shares of Malath Insurance and the Mediterranean & Gulf Insurance & Reinsurance Co. dropped 9.24 percent and 7.22 percent, respectively.
Out of 90 stocks traded, shares of only six companies edged higher, while shares of 82 companies were in negative territory. The stock market turnover was over SR4.83 billion yesterday.
The banking stocks suffered badly yesterday. Shares of Bank AlJazira declined 4.48 percent, while Samba Financial Group’s stocks fell 2.62 percent and Arab National Bank’s 2.17 percent.
Shares of Saudi Electricity Co. rose 2.22 percent to SR11.50 yesterday as it secured an “A+” credit rating from Standard & Poor’s.
In the telecom sector, shares of Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) fell 1.23 percent to SR60 and Etihad Etisalat by 3.03 percent to SR48 yesterday.
