Saudi equities sustain gains at close

30/11/2017 08:38 AST

Saudi Arabia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Petrochemicals, Media & Publishing and Multi Investment sectors propelled shares higher.

The Saudi stock index spent almost all the day trading higher though it closed up only 0.1 percent at 6,972 points, retreating from major technical resistance around 7,000 points, a level which has capped the market since mid-October and which roughly coincides with the 200-day average.

The biggest gainers of the session on the Tadawul All Share were Emaar The Economic City , which rose 5.92% or 0.73 points to trade at 13.06 at the close. Anaam International Holding Group added 3.62% or 0.48 points to end at 13.74 and Middle East Paper Co was up 3.03% or 0.60 points to 20.40 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Dar Alarkan Real Estate Development, which lost 3.47% or 0.33 points to trade at 9.19 in late trade. Arabia Insurance Cooperative Co declined 2.91% or 0.54 points to end at 18.04 and Fawaz Abdulaziz AlHokair Company shed 2.71% or 0.90 points to 32.30.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 93 to 84 and 6 ended unchanged on the Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange.

Gainers outnumbered losers by 92 to 84, with builder Khodari adding 0.8 percent after saying it had renewed a 94 million riyal ($25 million) Islamic credit facility with Gulf International Bank.

Al Babtain Power gained 3.0 percent after saying it would distribute a cash dividend of 0.5 riyal per share for the third quarter of 2017.

Elsewhere, Dubai's index slipped 0.3 percent before a public holiday on Thursday as the most heavily traded stock, Dubai Investments, sank 2.4 percent. Blue chip Emaar Properties fell 1.2 percent; it has been soft for several weeks because of a slump in Dubai's real estate market and a weak stock market debut by its local development unit, Emaar Development. Emaar Development slid 3.5 percent to 5.60 dirhams, its lowest finish yet and well below its IPO price of 6.03 dirhams.

But builder Drake & Scull surged 4.4 percent; it has been strong since Monday when it announced that its shares had been included in MSCI's GCC index.

Qatar was the strongest major market, rising 0.6 percent as shipper Qatar Navigation, which has been rebounding from an eight-year low hit in mid-November, jumped 4.9 percent.

Egypt, which had surged 2.2 percent to a record closing high on Tuesday after the central bank removed caps on deposits and withdrawals of foreign currency for importers, gained a further 0.3 percent.

Saudi Gazette