Saudi shares rise to month-high

11/07/2010 00:00 AST

Saudi shares gained the most in a month on the first day of the week after second-quarter earnings came in above analysts’ expectations.

Benchmark Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) rose 2.38 percent to close at 6,200.26 points, the highest level since June 28, fuelled mainly by a 4 percent rise in the petrochemical industry index and a 1.8 percent rise in the banking index. The gauge gained 0.4 percent last week.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp., Al Rajhi Bank, the Kingdom’s largest lender by market value, and Samba Financial Group paced the advance, as all 15 industry groups climbed.

SABIC soared 6.2 percent, the most since May 29, to SR90.25. Al Rajhi rose 3 percent to SR77.25. Samba increased as much as 3.1 percent, the largest intra-day gain in a month, to SR57.5.

Oil prices topped $76 per barrel on Friday against $74 on Wednesday, the last trading day for the Saudi bourse before the Thursday-Friday Saudi weekend.

“The market response is strong on the better-than-expected second-quarter earnings outcome,” said Younas Malick, senior economist at the National Commercial Bank in Jeddah. “The results of 16 companies combined shows strong 21.4 percent net- earnings growth during the January-June period. The market is expected to continue dominated by the earnings reports,” he said.

And Wall Street closed out its best week in a year on Friday as investors looked ahead to what many expect will be a solid earnings season.

Shares in Saudi Fertilizers Co was down 1.5 percent despite having announced earlier on Saturday an 89-percent rise in second quarter net profit due to the sale of land.

One of the first major lenders to announce second-quarter earnings, Riyad Bank gained 1.45 percent although it posted a 16.5 percent fall in second-quarter net profit.

Saudi Gazette