TADAWUL: Shares worth SR8.7bn traded

24/03/2014 07:18 AST

Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock Index (TASI) turned in a splendid performance on Sunday, reversing after a 5-day plunge and posting its second largest intra-day increase (+1.28 percent) since the start of 2014.

The index continued pacing its way higher throughout the day to achieve 119.57 points in a single session, closing at 9,425.21. With this increment TASI’s YTD yield reached to 10.42 percent.

Large cap with 1.3 percent upward jump remained prominent among market cap indices. Most of large caps finished to the upside, with SABB surging by 2.4 percent, Saudi Telecom Co. 2.27 percent, Al-Rajhi Bank 1.7 percent and market leader SABIC 1.08 percent.

Sectoral indices also extended gains except Media and Insurance, which pared 60 points jointly. Remaining 13 sectors showed a collection of 1,757.5 points for the day.

Positive performance was boosted by Tourism, Transport and Telecom sectors, which surged 2.72 percent, 1.9 percent and 1.89 percent respectively. Banking sector added considerable 280 points, up 1.44 percent to 19,783.94.

The market breadth confirmed a bullish momentum, as out of 159 stocks traded yesterday only 24 could not manage for gains.

National Agriculture Marketing Co. (Thimar) and Saudi Paper Manufacturing Co. topped the performance chart at Tadawul, soaring up 9.9 percent and 8.9 percent respectively. Market activity remained a little high as compared to previous day; turnover went up by 10.6 percent on volume basis and 13.5 percent in terms of liquidity.

Roughly 312 million shares worth SR8.7 billion were poured into the market. The 50-day average for trading turnover is closer to 276.4 million shares worth SR7.4 billion.

Alinma Bank with trades over fifty million amounting to SR642.8 million topped the activity charts, closing green at SR12.7. It secured a relative market share of 16.3 percent in terms of volume. All most active stocks witnessed a positive change for the session.

Arab News