Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) saw a slight decline in the first week of trading in 2017, amid negative performance in its leading sectors and a drop in turnover compared to the previous week.
The benchmark index TASI lost 0.16% or 11.7 points and closed at 7,198.73 points, compared to its previous closing at 7,210.43 points.
The index commenced the week with three straight but limited gains, but suffered a sharp drop in the fourth session and was near stable on the fifth session, recording an overall slightly negative performance.
Market capitalisation was down slightly by SAR 910 million ($240 million) during the week to SAR 1.681 trillion ($448.28 billion) compared to the previous week's SAR 1.682 trillion ($448.52 billion).
At the sectors' level, media and publishing led losers, falling 2.68% after all its stocks ended in the red, led by Tihama's 17.76% plunge during the week to SAR 27.93.
The banking sector followed suit, shedding 1.67% after National Commercial Bank (NCB) and AlRajhi lost 0.66% and 0.24% to SAR 42.34 and SAR 62.94, respectively.
The petrochemicals sector fell 0.37% on the back of SAFCO which declined 1.75% to SAR 73.34, whereas SABIC gained 1.11% to SAR 92.51.
The telecom sector was the lowest faller, inching down by 0.05% after STC slipped 0.07% to SAR 72.50, while Zain KSA grew 1.09% to SAR 8.38.
On the other hand, the hotels and tourism sector was the top gainer, adding 3.66% on the back of Al Tayyar Group, which gained 5.97% to SAR 38.85.
Turnover fell 9% week-on-week to SAR 24.95 billion ($6.65 billion) from SAR 27.4 billion ($7.3 billion), rendering an average per session of SAR 5 billion.
Traded volume was also down by 10% to 1.4 billion shares traded in the week ended 5 January compared to 1.55 billion shares in the previous week. The average per session for the past week stood at 280 million shares traded.
Nama Chemicals' stock was the biggest faller on Tadawul during the week, sliding 30.65% to SAR 4.30, whereas Arabian Shield Cooperative Insurance topped risers, surging 29.24% to SAR 52.25.
SABIC was the most active in terms of turnover with SAR 1.75 billion, while Dar Al Arkan Real Estate Development was the most active in terms of traded volume with 261.3 million shares exchanged during the week.
