Tadawul: Insurance stocks suffer 2% fall

04/05/2015 15:06 AST

Despite an upward jump (half percent) after the opening bell, Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index finished with a surprise decline of 0.71 percent on Sunday.

The Tadawul Index performed within a range of 146 points, closing the day at 9,764.24.

Med cap (down 1.1 percent) suffered worst of market cap indices, the GulfBase said in its market commentary.

Only Industrial Investment witnessed a nominal positive change among sectoral indices. Remaining 14 sectors lost an aggregate of 1,119.2 points for the day.

Insurance sector posted the largest losses, falling more than two percent to 1,629.37.

Top ten heavyweights closed in red, where Kingdom Holding dipping by 1.52 percent and Petrochemical giant SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) 1.25 percent.

However, Saudi Telecom Co. finished to the upside, gaining 1.18 percent to SR 69.88.

Decliners outnumbered the advancers by a margin of 113 to 34 and the prices of 16 companies remained unchanged.

Middle East Paper Co. (MEPCO) shares began trading on Sunday with the opening price of SR 33.

Trade Union Cooperative Insurance stepped up to occupy the top position at Tadawul, soaring up 7.51 percent to SR 45.04.

Share price of Saudi Chemical Co. climbed to a fresh five-year high of SR 79.5, up 2.16 percent.

On the other side of the spectrum, Arabia Insurance Cooperative Co. became the biggest loser of the day, down 9.69 percent.

Tadawul volume went slightly down by 3.9 percent and traded 406.4 million shares as compared to previous day’s 422.8 million shares. But still it was 19 percent greater than 50-day average of 341.3 million shares.

Equity turnover value (SR 10.9 billion) was twenty percent higher than 50-day average level. Trading value was led by Alinma Bank, which pumped SR 728.5 million, a relative market share of 6.7 percent.

GulfBase.com