Your stock market guide for Monday Jan. 3

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s stock market kicked off the new year in the green zone, with its major stocks seeing gains despite omicron-driven uncertainty and a surge in cases.

As many as 1,024 coronavirus cases were newly confirmed together with one coronavirus-caused death in the Kingdom on Sunday, Jan. 2, according to statistics by the Saudi Health Ministry.

Stocks on the main index TASI edged higher by 0.45 percent, reaching 11,332 points. On the parallel market, Nomu recorded gains amounting to 1.15 percent to close at 26,276 points.

Elsewhere in the Middle East amid the holiday season, the Qatari benchmark index QSI remained flat, while Egypt’s EGX30 saw marginal losses of 0.3 percent.

As announced in early December 2021, the UAE market will run trading sessions from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Gulf Standard Time, Monday to Friday, starting today, Jan. 3.

In energy trading, Brent crude oil added 0.56 cents to reach $78.34 a barrel while US WTI crude went up by 0.58 cents to $75.79 per barrel as of 8:26 a.m. Saudi time.

Stock news

• Riyad REIT Fund has injected SR233 million ($62 million) in a logistics portfolio over an area of 4.5 million square feet across Southeast USA
• ACWA Power has secured a $125 million senior credit facility for its subsidiary Rabigh Arabian Water and Electricity Co., known as RAWEC
• Derayah REIT Fund is to payout SR19.4 million in dividends – SR0.18 per unit – for the fourth quarter of 2021. The distribution date is set for Feb. 13, 2022
• SEDCO Capital REIT Fund signed a 5-year lease agreement with a local operator for Burj Al-Hayat property in Riyadh. The annual rental value will be SR1.5 million for the first three years, and then increase to SR1.6 million for the remaining two years
• Tihama Advertising and Public Relations Co.’s board has approved amending the capital raise recommendation to increase capital by SR350 million via rights issue