Riyadh - Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) ended Tuesday’s trading session in red due to the pressure of selling activity, closing with marginal losses after seeing gains earlier in the session.
The Tadawul All Shares Index (TASI) slipped 0.09% or 6.47 points, and closed at the level of 6,912.78 points.
Financial analyst Mohamed Al Maymouni said that lately, the Saudi market has been subject to external factors in the absence of real stimuli amidst anticipation for the financial results of the first quarter of 2017.
Al Maymouni added that the main index was moving in a downward trend before the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates which reversed TASI’s movement, something that he says was expected by investors.
He also expects the horizontal movements to continue in the upcoming period.
Traded values went up to SAR 3.08 billion ($821 million) compared to SAR 2.99 billion ($797 million) in Monday’s session.
On the other hand, traded volumes decreased to 150.2 million shares down from 161.29 million shares on Monday.
Launching the Nomu-Parallel Market has negatively impacted turnovers in Tadawul, Al Maymouni indicated.
As for the sectors’ performance, media and publishing led decliners and lost 3%, followed by utilities with 1.62%.
The materials sector index declined by 0.41% on the back of the majority of its stocks, while SABIC helped in offsetting losses by edging up 0.03% and closing at SAR 96.50.
Similarly, the telecom sector decreased by 0.4%, as STC and Zain fell 0.37% and 0.69%, respectively, while Mobily saw marginal gains.
On the other hand, banks added 0.05%, as National Commercial Bank (NCB) rose 0.25%, while Al Rajhi slipped 0.66%.
