Tadawul ceases 6-day surge

Saudi stock market's 6-day surge ended yesterday, as the market fell slightly (-6.55 points) from its previous day's level. The contest between bulls and bears ended without any significant change yesterday as Tadawul index retreated to 6,945.11 points, which was roughly where it started the session. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI), while fluctuating within a range of 36 points, closed just below the break-even line losing a nominal 0.09 percent. Five out of Tadawul's 15 sectors ended the day in green territory, accumulating only 79.4 points collectively. Remaining twofold sectors lost an aggregate of 246.37 points for the day. Sectoral performance was dominated by Multi-Investment and Agriculture sectors. offsetting their performance by 1.1 percent positive-negative change. Decliners outnumbered the advancers by a margin of 73 to 58 and the prices of 23 companies remained unchanged. Insurance stocks continued to dominate the market performance, filling the top gainer and loser charts consecutively. Allied Insurance Group and SABB Takaful Co. were key gainers of the day, surging by 10 percent and 9.94 percent respectively. An appreciation of nearly 137 percent (from SR 25.3 to SR 60) in the value of Allied Insurance has been recorded in eleven consecutive days. The bellwether SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) was major gainer among heavyweight stocks, advancing by 0.55 percent for the day. From: Arabnews