By: Waleed Abd El-Salam
Riyadh - Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) ended Tuesday’s trading session in the red zone as the main index opened at the level of 7,162 then dropped to 7,082 points before narrowing its losses.
Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) lost 0.75% or 53.94 points and closed at the level of 7,108.44 points, moving further away from the level of 7,200 points.
Financial analyst, Abdullah Al-Gabaly believes this decline is only a correction in Tadawul, until price bases are built to help reach higher levels.
A continuing rising trend was anticipated especially near the level of 7,200, but the market faced strong resistance near that are, which it was able to reach in the last three session, yet failed to close at this level, Al-Gabaly told Mubasher.
The main index decline was accompanied by a fall in traded values which reached SAR 4.8 billion down from SAR 7.7 billion on Monday, while traded volumes recorded 290 million shares compared to 510.48 million on yesterday’s session.
As for the sectors performance, media and publishing led the decliners and lost 3.4% on the back of Marketing and Research which dropped 3.74% to SAR 31.7.
The petrochem sector went down by 1.1% after SABIC and SAFCO slid 0.53% and 1.76% respectively.
The bank’s sector slipped 0.01%, as Al Ahli and Al Bilad edged decreased by 1.27% and 0.84% respectively.
Meanwhile, the telecom sector saw a marginal loss as it levelled down 0.01%, after Zain, and STC fell by 1% and 0.07%, while Mobily added 0.2%.
On the other hand, the energy sector increased by 0.26% as Saudi Electricity went up by the same percentage.
Al-Gabaly also said that what he believes support his expectations is the awaited decision by the federal reserve to raise the interest rates in the US, and the announcement of the new public budget in Saudi Arabia next week, which will most likely include a reduced government spending.
He added that the disclosure of the quarter financial results which will see a decline in distributed dividends could have its negative impact on Tadawul.
Al Yamamah Steel was today’s biggest decliner as it dropped 5.5% and closed at SAR 29.9, while MetLife AIG ANB Cooperative Insurance was the biggest gainer and surged 7.4%.
Dar Al Arkan was the most active in traded values and volumes with 79.7 million shares and a total turnover of SAR 478 million.
