JEDDAH: The Saudi Stock market rose on Tuesday to the highest level (6,979.09 points) in almost 40 months since Oct. 14, 2008. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) surged to 6,966.73 points, up 0.9 percent. The market leader SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) intensified the liquidity at Tadawul by contributing 9.4 percent of overall turnover. It recorded a turnover of more than SR1.08 billion and remained as most active scrip for the third consecutive day.
All sectors performed in a mixed fashion. Indices of petrochemical industries and cement sectors achieved a growth of 1.58 percent and 1.46 percent to close at 6,514.76 and 6,039.55 levels respectively. Hotel & Tourism sector pared 76.4 points to close at 6,995.17.
Share trading activity remained high on Tuesday. About 461.3 million shares worth SR11.51 billion were transacted. This turnover in terms of value reflects a 7.7 percent increase as compared to the previous day. While, the number of executed transactions reached 214,460 trades, an increase of 5.4 percent.
The advance-decline ratio was 1.3:1. Key gainers were ACE Arabia Cooperative Insurance and SALAMA Insurance, prices of both rallied to a maximum growth of 10 percent and 9.98 percent to close at 68.75 and 49.60 respectively. On the worst side, Allianz Saudi Fransi Cooperative Insurance and Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Insurance posted the largest losses amongst TASI equities, down 4.07 percent and 3.93 percent respectively.
Saudi International Petrochemical Co. recorded substantial yearly gains as it reported a net profit of SR705.9 million for the year-ended Dec. 31, 2011. This represents 86.7 percent growth over the SR378.1 million achieved in the previous year. Earnings per share amounted to SR1.93 compared to SR1.03 for the previous year.
© Arab News 2012
