Tadawul volume rockets to 1.1bn shares

20/03/2012 07:09 AST

Tadawul showed a record over and over again as its volume rocketed to a new high of 1.1 billion shares yesterday, surpassing previous day's 878.5 million shares.

Bulls continued to pump more and more liquidity, which rose to a significant level of SR21.6 billion, up 20 percent over the previous day.

Most of the trading was concentrated in Mobile Telecommuni-cations-ZAIN, Alinma Bank and Dar Alarkan Real Estate Development, which collectively contributed about half of the Tadawul's total volume.

Commenting on the Tadawul's massive turnover, Basil Kabbani of Zughaibi & Kabbani Financial Consultants, said: "Buying interest in Saudi companies which are trading near their par value actually caused to a substantial increase in Tadawul's turnover".

Perhaps, bulls' intention is to drive prices of these stocks to the actual levels and to increase the margin as well, he added.

The Saudi stock market (Tadawul) retreated to 7,616.01 on Monday, which was roughly where it started the day.

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) while reflecting large intra-day spikes added nominal 0.32 points to close in the green territory.

One of the best performing sectors was Real Estate Development which rose to 3.13 percent for the third consecutive day on Monday with Dar Alarkan Real Estate Development jumped 6.13 percent. On the worst side, Insurance and Retail sectors pared 134.11 points or 1.55 percent for the day.

Heavy weights closed in mixed fashion, where Kingdom Holding Co. soared up 4.4 percent. On the other hand, Riyad Bank and Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co. (SAFCO) went down by 1.12 percent 1.08 percent respectively.

Takween Advanced Industries and Alinma Bank performed well amongst all Saudi stocks and remained as top gainers of the day with 9.8 percent growth.

Arab News