Oil price rebound lifts Tadawul

The Saudi stock market extended gains for the third consecutive day yesterday. Petrochemical stocks continue to boost the market, while oil prices also supported. “Investors have been selling petchems in anticipation of bad Q2 numbers, but they’re oversold at these levels,” Rakan Himadeh, equity portfolio manager at Al Mal Capital, told Reuters. “Plus, with oil prices that have rebounded sharply from the lows, there’s more visibility on petrochemical pricing going into the second half of 2012.” The Tadawul All-Share Index rose 0.5 percent to 6,700 points yesterday. Most of the major sectors closed in the green territory; Real Estate sector remained at top showing an increment of 65.08 points or 1.93 percent for the day. Only three sectors ended in red, paring 41.1 points collectively. Insurance sector became the biggest loser of the day, dropping by 1.27 percent. Major heavy weights including Saudi Telecom, Kingdom Holding and SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) closed green, advancing 3.4 percent, 1.71 percent and 1.13 percent respectively. From arabnews