Saudi market cap rises to SR1.42 trillion

The Saudi stock market turned green last week, recovering a major portion of previous week\'s losses. Despite closing lower for two days during the week, the Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) dug in at 7,104.5 and finished the week up over 55 points or 0.78 percent from its previous weekend close at 7,049.51 points. The index touched an intra-week high of 7,121.84 and low of 7,048.37 levels, reflecting a narrow trading range of 73.5 points last week. On year-to-date basis, the index showed a collection of 686.8 points. Total market capitalization of Saudi stock exchange increased slightly to SR1.42 trillion as compared to previous week\'s SR 1.40 trillion, an increase of 1.6 percent. Sector indices at Saudi stock market ended the week with modest gains, as 10 out of 15 sectors marched higher, accumulating an aggregate of 1,060 points in a week. Multi-Investment turned in a splendid performance among sectoral indices, reflecting an increment of 315.4 points or 9.62 percent for the entire week to close at 3,592.11. Insurance and Hotel & Tourism sectors followed it, advancing 4.16 percent and 3.39 percent respectively. Advances outnumbered the decliners by a margin of 96 to 50 and the prices of 8 companies remained unchanged. Furthermore, upside-downside volume ratio of 3:1 remained largely positive. Insurance companies continued to play well among all Saudi stocks. Amanah Cooperative Insurance and Allianz Saudi Fransi remained top gainers of the week, moving up by 25.15 percent and 19.64 percent respectively. The Kingdom Holding made the biggest jump among heavy weight stocks, achieving a weekly growth of 17.62 percent. The company has also been able to occupy the place at top gainer chart, closing at SR 15.35, ranked third. Tadawul weekly turnover, however, improved slightly by 2.6 percent on volume basis, 5.3 percent on value basis and 5.8 percent in terms of executed transactions. Most of the major benchmark indices at GCC stock markets ended the week in green. The benchmark GulfBase GCC General Index closed the week higher at 3,951.33 points level, adding 27.05 points or 0.69 percent for the entire week. Arabnews