By: Aseel bin Taleb
Riyadh – Mubasher: The general index of the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) ended Thursday, the last trading session before the Eid Al-Fitr holidays, at a slight decline of 0.01% or 0.54 points to close at 6,499.88 points.
Tadawul is seeing a sideways movement with a lack of clarity as to the direction in which it is headed, commented market analyst Mohamed Al-Maymouny, adding that the month of Ramadan is often characterised by declining liquidity and less speculation.
The market is expected to see a downward movement owing to a number of internal and external factors including global market events and the Brexit vote as well as the approach of the disclosure period of the second quarter financials, which often coincides with investors reevaluating their portfolios, the analyst told Mubasher.
The petrochemicals sector is expected to grow on the back of improving oil prices and the return of profit margins for some products, Al-Maymouny said, adding that the real estate sector will likely see positive performance owing to the Ministry of Housing’s plan to develop plots.
The Saudi market is expected to decline on the long-term of around 100 to 200 days, the analyst told Mubasher, noting that falling below the level of 6,600 points has indicated this decline.
The analyst also said that the newly-listed L’azurde’s gains in its first session of trading, where it added 7.57%, but dropped 7.02% were due to weak liquidity and absence of speculation.
Turnover reached SAR 4.2 billion on Thursday after 257.3 million shares were traded through 100,200 transactions. A total of 56 stocks were ended in the green, while 109 were in the red and 5 remained stable.
National Gas and Industrialisation led gainers on Thursday, adding 5.47% to SAR 27, whereas L’azurde led fallers, sliding 7.02% to SAR 37.2. The jewellery maker was the most active with a 15,200 transactions executed today.
Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi
