Heavyweights keep Tadawul green

The Saudi Stock market depicted a positive drive yesterday on the back of strong performance by the heavyweights. After a steep decline of 75 points earlier yesterday, the Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) while wavering diagonal in the north throughout the session, reflecting small movements closed higher at 6770.19 points, up 22.51 points or 0.33 percent. Saudi sectors indices performed in a mixed fashion, with five sectors accumulating an aggregate of 182.8 points. Petrochemical Industries sector outperformed, up 1.2 percent to close at 6,036.21 points. On the other hand, Media and Publishing counterbalanced, minimizing intra-day gains by shedding same percentage. Heavyweights played well this time, forcing Tadawul to edge up. Kingdom Holding and SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) turned in a splendid performance, rising by 1.97 percent and 1.37 percent respectively. Only Etihad Etisalat Co. (Mobily) could not manage for gains, trimming 0.79 percent for the day. Al-Tayyar Travel Group shares began trading today on Tadawul, registering a 492.5 percent growth from its IPO price of SR10.0 to close price of SR59.25. Al-Tayyar with a turnover of SR1.4 billion also became the most active stock on value basis, capturing 22.8 percent of the total value of shares traded on the Tadawul. Insurance stocks continued to dominate the market performance, filling the top gainer and loser charts consecutively. Amana Insurance remained prominent for the second straight day, surging 9.7 percent to close at SR33.8. By Arab News