Tadawul sustains upward march

Saudi equities sustained its upward march yesterday and closed the day with impressive gains. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) extended another 83.05 points (1.08 percent) on the second trading day of the week. It opened at 7,675.61 points, which proved to be the intra-day low and closed at 7,758.66 points. Overall performance of sectoral indices remained positive. The cement sector was on top, showing a daily growth of 4.26 percent to close at 6,134.44 points. It was followed by hotel and tourism, which added 232.57 points, an increase of 3.14 percent. The banks and financial services sector added considerable 312.41 points (1.81 percent) and closed at 17,600.82. The insurance sector remained as the worst performing sector, down 0.44 percent and closed at 1,333.48 points. Market participants responded positively as turnover at Tadawul went up by 18.7 percent to 823 million shares; its total liquidity of SR 16.58 billion increased by 15 percent over the previous trading day. Market breadth was positive, whereby 83 symbols closed in green and 53 closed in red, while 11 remained unchanged. Atheeb Telecom, Enaya Insurance and Hail Cement dominated the performance in Saudi stock market; gaining a percentage of 9.93, 9.89 and 9.76 respectively. While Almutakamela and Allianz SF were the worst performers, declining by 9.97 and 9.79 percent and closed at SR 34.30 and SR 94.50 respectively. Among large cap stocks; SAMBA Financial Group surged by 3.34 percent and closed at SR54.00, followed by Al-Rajhi Bank and Riyad Bank which added 2.24 and 1.18 percent respectively, while SABIC slipped 0.24 percent, to close at SR 106.75. Saudi Mobile Telecommunications Co. (ZAIN) with the volume of 192 million shares came out as the most active stock of the day, representing a 23.31 percent market share. ZAIN also topped the chart of most active script by value traded with SR 2.175 billion and grabbed a 13.12 percent market share.