Tadawul: Insurance stocks gain strength

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) added 0.1 percent on Sunday. Nine of the top 10 performers were from the insurance segment with Wafa Insurance in the lead, jumping 9.1 percent.
Interest in the sector has risen partly because of local media reports late last year that Saudi Arabia was looking at the possibility of including Haj and Umrah pilgrims in a compulsory health insurance scheme.
Almarai rose 0.4 percent after the Gulf’s largest dairy company reported a 1 percent increase in fourth-quarter net profit to SR488.5 million ($130 million), roughly in line with analysts’ forecasts. Sales rose marginally and the cost of sales fell.
Analysts at NCB Capital said that despite the relatively flat earnings and revenue growth, strong margin expansion from lower operating expenditure and improving sales in Almarai’s poultry segment were important positives.
The company, one of the few in Saudi Arabia that give forward guidance, said it would “continue to focus on costs control, efficiency gains and cash-flow preservation while maintaining its strategic direction of profitable growth.”
However, the results revealed the dairy and juice segment had suffered its first year-on-year decline in sales, according to NCB Capital. This sent some other food producers lower, with Saudia Dairy and Foodstuff dropping 3.4 percent.
Bank Aljazira, the first bank to report earnings in the Kingdom, reported a 4.4 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit to SR152 million. Aljazira cited higher impairment charges for credit losses.
The bank’s stock closed 0.4 percent higher after trading lower for most of the session.
However, some other banks were knocked lower, with Saudi British Bank dropping 1.4 percent.
National Bank of Oman lost 1.2 percent after posting a 19.9 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit, at the low end of analysts’ estimates.
Kuwait’s stock market gained 1.9 percent with the largest logistics firm in the Gulf, Agility and National Bank of Kuwait each climbing 3 percent.
Kuwait’s index is up 8.2 percent since Jan. 1, outperforming the region after a long period of sluggish performance.
Dubai’s index pulled back 1.1 percent, its largest single-day decline in a month, retreating from a 15-month high hit last week. Some of last week’s biggest gainers were among the main drags — builder Drake & Scull dropped 3.6 percent and Amlak Finance lost 2.2 percent.
Abu Dhabi’s index edged down 0.1 percent. International Fish Farming Holding (Asmak) jumped 6.9 percent after a blog posting suggested a well-known Abu Dhabi individual investor had bought a strategic stake in the company.
But contacted by Reuters, an Asmak spokesman denied that, and said the company had also communicated the denial to the Abu Dhabi exchange.

Source: Arab News