JEDDAH: The Saudi stock market made a strong start to the week with a gain of 1.99 percent yesterday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) surged 96.55 points to close at 4,944.18 after rising 1.11 percent last week. The petrochemical, industrial investment and agriculture & food industries sectors made big gains yesterday.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) shares jumped by 3.52 percent to SR49.90, Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. by 5.27 percent to SR20.95 and Saudi Arabia Fertilizer Co. by 4.25 percent to SR98. Saudi Arabian Cooperative Insurance Co. was the top gainer yesterday as its shares surged 10 percent to SR38.50, while Sagr Insurance was the top loser as its shares dropped 7.05 percent to SR31.60.
The stock market turnover was over SR5.16 billion yesterday. The Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market report yesterday that liquidity came below the 5-day simple moving average. As of now, we are about 10 points away from clearing the next trend line resistance before clearing another resistance at a previous peak at 4,975.
Meanwhile, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced yesterday that the listing rules and the board of directors and senior executives’ trading restriction period would be for companies whose fiscal year periods end on March 31, 2009; the restriction period starts on March 4, 2009 and ends on the date of publishing the preliminary or final announcement of the company’s annual results.
The CMA said for companies whose fiscal interim periods end on March 31, 2009, the restriction period starts on March 18, 2009 and ends on the date of publishing the announcement of the company’s interim results.
For companies that follow the Hijra calendar and whose fiscal interim periods end on 30/03/1430 H corresponding March 27, 2009 (according to Umm Al-Qura calendar), the restriction period starts on 17/03/1430 H corresponding March 14, 2009 and ends on the date of publishing the announcement of the company’s interim results. For companies that follow the Hijra calendar and whose fiscal year periods end on 29/04/1430 H corresponding April 25, 2009, the restriction period starts on 02/04/1430 H corresponding March 29, 2009 and ends on the date of publishing the preliminary or final announcement of the company’s annual results.
BMG turnover down
The BMG Saudi Index, which comprises the top 30 active companies in Saudi Arabia based on their market capitalization after removing government ownership, ended yesterday’s trading session on a positive note, increasing by 2.32 percent and gaining 5.58 points to close at 242.57 points. The total turnover, however, went down by 23.3 percent to SR2.9 billion compared to Wednesday’s session’s turnover of SR3.7 billion, whereas the total number of shares traded appreciated by 1.4 percent to 159.4 million shares versus 157.1 million shares in the previous session. As for the shares’ performance, 29 appreciated while only one depreciated.
