Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) extended bear run to the second trading session in a row.
Weighed down by the leading sectors, the benchmark lost 51.6 points, or 0.76%, to close at 6,754.23 points.
The real estate sector ended Sunday 1.81% lower for the fourth trading session following a six-session winning streak.
The sector’s heaviest stock Jabal Omar saw a decline of 2.71% after the company announced Thursday logging a net loss of SAR44 million in 2015 against a net profit of SAR65 million a year earlier. Meanwhile, the top loser was Arriyadh Development with a slide of 8.31%, following the end of its FY15 dividend payout at SAR1.3 per share.
Likewise, the banking sector was dragged 0.64% lower by a semi-collective decline of its stocks, excluding Al Bilad Bank that rose by 0.31% and SABB that steadied at close.
Petrochemical Industries also reversed Thursday’s positive note to finish the session 0.64% down, although its largest constituent, SABIC, moved up by 0.31%. But the sector was weakened by a fall of nine stocks headed by Sahara Petrochemicals (-2.36%).
On the same negative note, the telecom sector slipped by 1.44% against a rise of 0.22% on Thursday as STC and Mobily went down by 1.84% and 1.04% respectively.
In general, only five sectors took place in the green zone today topped by the Industrial Investment (+4.94%), while the red zone was occupied by ten sectors headed by hotel & tourism (-0.22%).
Tracking stock movement, the ninety five top losers were headed by Arriyadh Development (-8.3%), Tabuk Cement (-7.46%), and Arabian Cement (-5.68%), whose cut-off dividend date was last Thursday.
Meanwhile, seventy stocks saw a rise and led by Maaden that registered a 9.96% rise, then followed by Al Sagr Cooperative Insurance (+9.73%), Arabia Insurance Cooperative (+9.66%), and Solidarity (+8.41%).
Trading value also fell to SAR6.4 billion ($1.71 billion) from SAR6.72 billion ($1.79 billion). Similarly, trading volume declined to 373 million shares traded today from 376 million ones on Thursday.
