Tadawul index near flat on varying 1Q results

Saudi men walk at the Tadawul Saudi Stock Exchange, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in this file photo. (AP)

DUBAI: First-quarter results from major companies drove trading on Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange on Wednesday, with the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) edging 0.2 percent higher.
Majority state-owned Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) rose 2.2 percent in trading that exceeded its one-month average daily volume after the company swung to a net profit of SR4.94 billion in the first quarter.
The company attributed the jump to the cancelation of accounts payable for municipality fees, as a result of a royal decree issued this year exempting the company from paying them.
Shares of Saudi Cement, whose net income fell by almost a third in the first quarter from the year-ago period, rose 1 percent. The results are broadly in line with analysts’ estimates but the company is trading at a slight discount to its peers, offering investors some value to hold onto the share.
Shares of construction firm Al Khodari, however, fell 1.7 percent to SR11.30 after it swung to a net loss of SR17.8 million compared to a net profit of SR2.2 million in the same period last year. Analysts at EFG Hermes had forecast a net loss of SR38 million during the period.
Al Khodari, which has ongoing projects with the government, attributed the poor results to a 50 percent decline in revenue, slow progress on ongoing projects, a decline in new project awards and liquidity challenges in the industry as a whole.
The firm said some changes to its financial statements had been made as a result of its adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) from Jan. 1.
“Asset-heavy companies were impacted negatively, including cement and petrochemicals,” said a Riyadh-based equity analyst.
IFRS requires assets to be priced at current market value and that any impairment charges to be reflected in the income statement, which becomes burdensome on companies which have very old assets.
Saudi International Petro-chemical (Sipchem) lost 2 percent after reporting broadly in-line first-quarter results, with net income almost doubling from the year-ago period and almost tripling from the previous quarter.
“We believe better than expected sales were offset by higher than expected non-operating expenses,” said a note by Riyadh-based NCB Capital.
Elsewhere, Dubai’s index lost 0.4 percent with amusement park operator DXB Entertainments (DXBE) dropping 5 percent after it said net losses widened to 287.4 million dirhams in the first quarter.
Abu Dhabi’s main index barely moved as real estate-related shares diverged — Aldar Properties rose 0.9 percent while RAK Properties fell 1.6 percent.
In Qatar, the index rebounded 1.3 percent, pulling further away from a five-month low hit earlier this week. Telecommunication operators were some of the top movers, with Ooredoo climbing 2.6 percent.
Egypt’s index added 0.5 percent to 12,993 points, climbing back toward an all-time peak hit in mid-January. Foreign funds were net buyers on Wednesday, while local traders were net sellers, bourse data showed.