Tadawul shows a significant upturn

24/11/2014 05:52 AST

The Saudi stock market continued its upward march and rose for a fourth trading session on Sunday.

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) added further 106.8 points or 1.14 percent to 9,515.63 points. While curving in the upward territory throughout the day it rose to a maximum gain of 147 points.

On year-to-date basis, the TASI logged a positive return of 11.48 percent.

The market cap indices all finished to the upside, with Micro Cap advancing 1.8 percent. All sectoral indices witnessed a positive change for the day, accumulating an aggregate of 1,750 points.

Insurance outperformed among the sectoral indices, surging 3.77 percent to close at 1,637.27. Tourism and Petrochemical Industries were other key gaining sectors, posting a growth of 2.79 percent and 1.75 percent respectively.

Top ten heavyweights extended gains, with market leader SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) surging by 2.56 percent and SABB 1.77 percent. New player NCB grew 1.25 percent to SR 62. Only Kingdom holding company finished to the downside, declining 1.2 percent to close at SR 19.72.

The market breadth confirmed a bullish momentum, as out of 162 stocks traded Sunday only 8 could not manage for gains.

The top gainers chart was filled by insurance stocks, with AXA Cooperative Insurance rallying to an increment of 9.97 percent and Wafa Insurance 9.72 percent.

Share price of Malath Cooperative Insurance climbed to a fresh 5-year high of SR40.6 before closing at SR38.81. Furthermore, Bupa Insurance has shown a huge 320 percent price appreciation in one year.

Market activity with trades over 235 million shares worth SR 7.98 billion was 29 percent high as compared to previous trading day but still it was slightly below the 50-day average level.

Most of the trading was concentrated in Alinma Bank, which liquidated 36.2 million shares, a relative market share of 15.4 percent. It also pumped more liquidity into the market, contributing roughly SR848.8 million and advancing 2.82 percent for the day.

GulfBase.com