By: Thabet Shehata
Riyadh - Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) ended Tuesday’s trading session in red on the back of the negative performance of major sectors such as banks, materials, and telecom.
Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) lost 0.38% or 26.9 points, and closed at the level of 7,032.65 points.
According to market analyst, Mohamed Al Maymouni, the Saudi market is still going in an upwards direction, between the levels of 6,900 and 7,100 points, amidst the absence of strong stimulus, making the market largely reflecting the fluctuations in oil prices.
Traded values declined to SAR 3.58 billion ($955 million), its lowest level in February, from SAR 3.82 billion ($1.02 billion) in last session, while traded volumes went down to 199 million shares compared to 212.14 million shares on Monday.
As for the sectors performance, 16 sectors closed in red, led by commercial services which lost 1.57%, while banks slipped 0.58% as Al Rajhi and NCB fell 0.38% and 0.15% respectively.
Materials index declined 0.27%, as SABIC and SAFCO slipped 0.09% and 0.13% respectively.
The telecom sector levelled down 0.04%, as Mobily decreased by 0.37% to SAR 21.8, while STC and Zain added 0.05% and 1.9%, closing at SAT 65 and 9.1 respectively.
On the other hand, the REITs gained 3.33%, followed by media, food retailing, and insurance with 1.58%, 0.61%, and 0.34% respectively.
As for the stocks performance, Saudi Re led the gainers and surged 9.65%, while Saudi Arabia Refineries was the biggest loser and dropped 2.6%.
Alinma registered the biggest turnover with SAR 338.65 million, while Dar Al Arkan was the most active in traded volumes with 27.28 million shares.
