TASI begins new week positively

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed higher at 6,987.06 yesterday, up 33.47 points or 0.48 percent for the day. Earlier the index started its ascending travel, crossed the 7,000 mark during mid of the session and then moving downward ended below this level, showing a maximum rise of 51 points. On year-to-date basis, it showed a yield of 8.87 percent. Sectoral performance was tremendous, as 13 out of the 15 sectors closed in the upward territory, accumulating nearly 800 points collectively. Only Multi-Investment and Petrochemical sectors could not manage for gains, trimming an aggregate of 29 points. Hotel & Tourism and Insurance were best performing sectors of the day, surging by 5.06 percent and 2.7 percent respectively. Hotel sector added more than 376 points to close the day at 7,809.76. Most of the trading was concentrated in the Insurance sector, which pumped more liquidity into the market by contributing SR 2.4 billion, which is approximately 40 percent of overall market turnover. Market breadth with advance-decline ratio of 2.1:1 remained extremely strong. Most of heavy weights closed in green, with Etihad Etisalat Co. (Mobily) surging 2.27 percent, SABB 2.12 percent and Samba Financial Group 0.62 percent. Only the Kingdom Holding and Saudi Telecom closed lower, declining by 0.84 percent and 0.51 percent respectively. Insurance stocks led the top gainer chart at Tadawul, with Alinma Tokio Marine, Alalamiya Insurance and Allied Insurance Group, all rising by 9.8 percent for the day. Alinma Insurance also topped the value chart on the Saudi stock market with a turnover of SR 441.3 million. From : Arabnews