Riyadh - Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) continued its gains on Wednesday for the second session in a row, recording its highest daily gains in nine sessions, amid a group rise for the market sectors.
The Tadawul All Shares Index (TASI) went up 1.1%, gaining 76 points, and closing at the level of 6,948.96 points, moving closer to the level of 7,000 points.
Financial expert Mohamed Al Shemaymari said that the Saudi market is seeing a normal rebalance in the last couple of sessions, after its recent losses.
Al Shemaymari added in a phone call with Mubasher that the positive expectations for the first quarter of 2017 saw a market rebalance, supported by the strong performance by the petrochemicals and banks sectors.
Traded values declined to SAR 2.82 billion ($752 million) compared to SAR 2.95 billion ($786 million) in the previous session.
On the other hand, traded volumes increased to 132.7 million shares up from 128.14 million shares on Tuesday.
Al Shemaymari said that the recent drop in liquidity levels in Tadawul has nothing to do with the Nomu-Parallel Market, as many of the experts believe, but is directly attributed to the fear that has been dominating investors’ activity, especially with the rise in energy prices.
All of the market sectors closed in green, except for REITs which lost 0.38%.
The capital goods index led the gains and added 2.57%, as National Industrialization (Tasnee) rose 4.27% and closed at SAR 17.10.
Tadawul is expected to see a horizontal trend in the upcoming period until the vision is clearer concerning the listed companies' financial results, Al Shemaymari expects.
The material sector went up 1.49%, after SABIC and SAFCO rose 0.36% to SAR 96.75 and 1.1% to SAR 69.
The banks sector inched up 1.25%, as the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Al Rajhi Bank levelled up 1.3% to SAR 39 and 0.67% to SAR 63.50, respectively.
The telecom sector increased 0.5%, supported by Saudi Telecom Co (STC) which gained 0.42% to SAR 66.50.
Saudi Industrial Investment Group topped the green zone and hiked 9.79% to SAR 21.20.
Nadec led losers and went down 1.98% to SAR 29.20.
Alinma Bank was the most active in terms of traded values and volumes with 26.9 million shares exchanged at a value of SAR 400.8 million; the stock added 0.13% to SAR 14.90.
