By Mohamed Abu Meleeh
Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) continued a bear run on Thursday for the third successive day, as it shed 2.95% or 172 points to close at 5,660.86 points. It lost 244.6 points or 4.14% in the three-day fall.
The market is expected to move back to the 5,400 mark after breaking below the 5,800 level.
The current market slide can be halted if listed companies clarify their current positions and future plans to their respective shareholders, said Mohamed Al Maymouni, financial analyst.
He indicated that the market was weighed by internal and external factors, including the fall of global markets, as well as the oil price decline below $27 per barrel.
Tadawul’s main index may move further lower towards 5,400 points after it broke below the 5,800 mark today, according to the analyst.
The market decline today was driven by the drop of all sectors mainly in leading sectors of banks (-2.24%), then petrochemical industries (-3.38%), agriculture (-4.51%) and real estate (-1.98%). The media sector also fell by 9.96%, hotel and tourism (-8.16%) and insurance (8.15%).
Most stocks were in red, except for Ma’aden (+0.47%), STC (+0.17%) and Jabal Omar (+0.09%). Furthermore, 28 stocks declined by more than 9% topped by SRMG (-9.97%), Saudi Printing (-9.96%) and Alinma Tokio Marine (-9.92%).
