JEDDAH: The Saudi stock market kept its upward momentum on Saturday after surging 2.27 percent last week. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) surged 60.83 points to 6,321.73 with gains in almost all sectors except the Energy & Utilities sector, which saw a loss of 0.27 percent.
Overall sector gains ranged from 0.37 percent in both the Real Estate Development and the Multi-Investment sector to a gain of 1.93 percent in the Media & Publishing sector. Overall market breadth was positive with 110 advancers and 12 decliners giving an AD ratio of 9.17, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market commentary.
The stock market turnover was over SR3 billion on Saturday. While reviewing the Saudi stock market’s performance for the year 2009, the Kuwait-based Global Investment House (Global) said that despite a rocky start at the beginning of 2009 the Saudi market managed to bounce back and built up momentum throughout the rest of the year. Saudi stocks kicked-off the year 2009 boggled with the aftermath of the world economic crisis, which resulted in a huge drop in Tadawul during the first quarter of 2009. TASI reached its lowest level of the year on March 9, when it ended at 4,130.01 points, down 14 percent from its closing level of Dec. 31, 2008.
However, backed by the strong foundation of the Saudi economy, as well as a surge in crude oil prices, the Saudi market picked up pace at the beginning of the second quarter. TASI registered 27.5 percent in annual gain for the year 2009.
The overall trading activity declined during 2009. Total volume of traded shares dropped by 5.73 percent with 57.34 billion shares traded on the exchange at an aggregate value of SR1.26 trillion, down by 35.61 percent when compared to an aggregate value of SR1.96 trillion in 2008. The Petrochemical Industries sector came first in terms of the volume and value of shares traded on the exchange during the year 2009.
On the companies’ level, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) hogged the limelight in terms of value of shares traded during the year, which reached SR143.16 billion. The company also came first in terms of the number of deals executed, with 1.64 million transactions.
The Global report said the number of companies offered part of their shares to investors through an initial public offerings (IPOs) reached 11 companies in 2009, with consolidated share capital of SR69.6 billion. The combined size of those offerings reached 338 million shares with a total offer value of SR3.9 billion. This shows a huge downtrend from 2008 levels which reached 2.63 billion shares with a total offer value of SR36.39 billion and looks very pale compared to figures from 2007, which witnessed the offering of 25 IPOs at a combined share capital of SR94.8 billion.
