Tadawul Index rises slightly

The Saudi stock market depicted a positive drive yesterday, as Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) wavering in the green territory throughout day and within a narrow range of 29 points, closed 0.20 percent higher at 7,086.8 points. All market cap indices ended the day in the green district. Most of the major sectors closed in the upward territory; Hotel & Tourism sector remained at top showing an increment of 150 points or 1.97 percent for the day. Only three sectors ended in red, paring 67 points collectively. Telecom sector became the biggest loser of the day, declining by 0.57 percent. Market breadth with advance-decline ratio of 1.4:1 remained positive. Four out of top 10 heavy weight stocks ended in the green. Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co. (SAFCO) and bellwether SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) performed well relatively, achieving a daily growth of 1.08 percent and 0.82 percent respectively. Only Etihad Etisalat Co. (Mobily) and Saudi Telecom Co. closed lower, trimming 0.37 percent and 0.25 percent respectively. While, four heavyweights including Kingdom Holding closed without any change. Insurance companies continued to show a tremendous performance among all Saudi stocks, with Allianz Saudi Fransi and Amanah Cooperative Insurance both marched higher over eight percent to close the day at SR 125 and SR 228 respectively. Share trading began to taper off, as Tadawul volume set sold approximately 207 million shares, a decrease of 24.2 percent as compared to previous day. The volume also remained 24.4 percent below the 50-day average of 274.3 million shares. Arabnews