Brace for the trading week on Tadawul; earnings season in high gear

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s stock market closed last trading week lower, as TASI extended losses, investors remained cautious on omicron fears, and earnings season moved into high gear.

In the latest session, TASI slipped 0.4 percent to reach 12,142 points, while the parallel market, Nomu, inched up by 0.1 percent to 25,215 points.

The main indexes of Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait ended higher, all rising between 0.1 and 0.4 percent.

Apart from the Gulf, the Egyptian index EGX30 dropped 0.5 percent.

On Friday, Dubai’s DFMGI and Abu Dhabi’s FTSE ADX general index were up 0.6 and 0.1 percent, respectively.

In energy trading, oil prices hit their longest streak of weekly gains since October as freezing weather across North America threatened oil supplies.

Brent crude gained 2.37 percent to $93.3 a barrel, and US benchmark WTI surged to $92.3 per barrel.

Stock news

• Alinma Bank has established a special purpose vehicle company, called Alinma SPV Limited, with a capital of SR187,500 ($50,000) and based in the Cayman Islands
• HSBC Saudi Arabia has finalized the price stabilization period for recently listed food delivery startup Jahez on Feb. 3, 2022. According to the stabilizing manager, the offering size will stand at 2.09 million shares with a value of SR1.8 billion
• Saudi Arabia Refineries Co. has reappointed Aiad Mohammad Mesheikh as board chairman and Hattan Hamed Al-Shanbari as vice chairman of the board
• Leejam Sports Co., operator of the largest Saudi gym chain Fitness Time, has swung into its highest ever annual profit in the fiscal year 2021
• Jabal Omar Development Co. announced the partial early redemption of $67.5 million worth of Sukuk, which originally matures in November 2023
• Bank Albilad reported over a 25 percent increase in its 2021 profits, propelled by a rise in operating profit. Profits reached SR1.69 billion
• Etihad Atheeb Telecommunication Co. turned into losses of SR29 million in the nine months ending Dec. 31, 2021
• Bank AlJazira saw its 2021 profits surge to over SR1 billion, which followed a staggering 2,876 percent profit hike from a year earlier
• Emaar the Economic City Co., known as Emaar EC, signed a rescheduling agreement with the Saudi British Bank, revising the terms of a SR976 million Shariah-compliant outstanding long-term Tawarruq facility
• ACWA POWER Co. converted the operations of Hassyan power plant – a 2400MW project in Dubai – from clean coal to natural gas