JEDDAH, 11 January 2008 — The BMG Saudi Index reversed its performance, ending the week with an upward trend of 9.7 percent, closing on Wednesday at 656.7 points. The total weekly turnover experienced a very strong jump, up by 59.3 percent to register SR28 billion ($7.5 billion) over the week’s trading, versus the previous week’s SR17.6 billion ($4.7 billion).
The average P/E ratio for 2006 earnings was 31.7 times, whereas the price to book ratio was 6.53 times. Most of the sectors in the index gained. The Industrial sector advanced by 10.6 percent, ending the week at 1,549.5 points, followed by the Services sector which added 41.1 points, closing at 941.7 points. The Agricultural sector went up by 3.1 percent, while the Insurance sector was the only negative mover, down by 4.4 percent.
As for the allocation of turnover for each sector, the Industrial sector’s shares registered an increase to reach approximately SR18.2 billion ($4.9 billion), indicating 65.1 percent of total turnover, while the value of trades in the shares of the Services sector reached SR4.2 billion ($1.1 billion), representing 14.9 percent of the total weekly turnover.
The Agricultural sector’s share of trading was close to that of the Services sector, reaching 14.6 percent of the total investments in the index, whereas the Insurance sector was the lowest in terms of the total turnover, with SR1.5 billion ($0.4 million) of the total index’s turnover. As for the “beta coefficient” for each sector, the Agricultural sector recorded the highest beta value of 1.2, followed by the Service sector whose beta was 1.17, and the Industrial and Insurance sectors’ betas were 1 and -0.17, respectively.
Only eight stocks dropped their prices over this week. Malath Cooperative Insurance and Reinsurance Company was the worst performer over the week, with a percentage loss of 6.7 percent, closing at SR140 per share. The best performer was Saudi Kayan Petrochemicals which registered the highest positive percentage change over the week at 11.9 percent with a value of SR10.04 billion traded on 363.5 million shares, to finally close at SR28.25 per share. SABIC was the third best performer among the BMG Saudi Index stocks, increasing in share price by 10.8 percent to close at SR217.25 per share.
