Banking shares weigh on Tadawul; index falls 0.4%

Banking shares weighed on the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) on Tuesday, which fell 0.4 percent. Alawwal Bank fell 0.9 percent.
Shares of Saudi Fisheries dropped 1.4 percent after reporting a first-quarter net loss of SR9.2 million ($2.45 million).
Separately, the fish farmer said it had secured a SR42.8 million loan from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) to complete the construction of fish feed facility.
Other agriculture companies, however, were some of the top performers on investor hopes that those producers may also get financial support from the state-owned development fund.
National Agriculture Development (NAD) was the best performing shares on the index, jumping 8.1 percent in unusually heavy trade.
On Tuesday, shares of Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) outperformed most peers in the region after reporting a low double-digit growth in the first-quarter net profit.
In most bourses across the Middle East, long-term institutional investors stayed away in light of heightened geopolitical risks, traders said.
DIB shares rose 0.9 percent after the lender reported a first-quarter net profit attributable to shareholders of AED1 billion ($272.3 million), 14 percent higher than the prior year period.
The bank is the first in the region to report earnings. The bourse on which it trades, however, closed flat with 18 shares declining and eight shares, excluding DIB, advancing.
Abu Dhabi’s index edged down 0.2 percent as shares of the recently merged lender First Gulf Bank, which were one of the best performers last week, fell 0.5 percent.
Shares of Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) fell 3.3 percent on profit-taking. But trading volume on those shares dropped significantly from the very high levels seen over the last week.
TAQA rose 1.7 percent on Monday and shares of the energy company have been volatile since last week, when the government announced it had raised its stake in the company.
Qatar’s index lost 0.7 percent as a little under three-quarters of the traded shares declined. Telecommunications operator Ooredoo was the worst performer, dropping 2.4 percent.
Egypt’s index rebounded 1.2 percent just over half of the traded shares edged higher. Arabian Cement was the top performer, jumping 4.0 percent.
The index fell 1.9 percent on the previous two days after two church bomb attacks killed at least 44 people in Egypt on Sunday.

Source: Arab News