RIYADH: The Tadawul All Share Index shed 56.99 points — or 0.57 percent — on Monday to close at 9,994.79 points, as it descended for the seventh consecutive session.
TASI fell 5.24 percent in the last seven sessions. Since last year, it has dropped by 19.51 percent, largely weighed down by the banking and energy sectors, which plunged 26.45 percent and 16.27 percent, respectively.
“The two larger engines of the Saudi equity market, petrochemicals and banks, are yet to fire for the market to move up again,” Pritish Devassy, head of sell-side research of Riyadh-based GIB Capital, told Arab News.
Explaining the rationale behind the rout in the banking sector, Devassy said the index had to take a beating because of the recent changes in mortgage subsidies, which could add to the market concerns about the rising interest rates and its impact on the lending growth.
The petrochemical sector has also witnessed broad sell-offs because of the weak financial results in the fourth quarter of 2022, range-bound product prices in February and uncertainty in oil prices, pointed out Devassy.
“The money is likely chasing defensives with some companies in sectors, such as healthcare, at 52-week highs. Some local story stocks such as Alamar, Americana and Theeb had also touched record highs recently,” added Devassy.
On Monday, however, the advance-decline ratio skewed positively, with 145 stocks of the listed 224 heading north and 67 turning south.
The total trading turnover increased 59 percent to SR4.41 billion ($1.18 billion) from Sunday’s SR2.77 billion.
Meanwhile, MSCI Tadawul 30 Index and the parallel market Nomu fell flat to close at 1,362.84 and 18,976.71 points, respectively.
On the announcements front, Saudi Chemical Co. Ltd. informed the exchange that it has, in partnership with a local company, received a gas allocation letter from the Ministry of Energy to establish a facility for the production of nitric acid and ammonium nitrate.
The facility’s annual production capacity for nitric acid will be 440,000 tons, and ammonium nitrate will be 300,000 tons.
The project will provide the raw materials for industries, mainly for civil and military explosives, fuel for missiles and rocket propellants and smelting salts used in producing solar panels. SCCL’s share price closed 1.47 percent higher to SR27.65.
Al Moammar Information Systems also announced that it bagged a contract worth SR228.77 million from the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence for the third phase of technical support for open systems TSOS3. Its share price moved up marginally to SR96.
Mulkia Investment Co., the fund manager and operator of Mulkia Gulf Real Estate REIT Fund, also announced that unitholders approved, on Sunday, increasing the fund’s total assets through issuing additional units in-kind and cash.
According to the company statement, the fund’s capital increase will range between SR250 million and SR114.86 million.
The capital hike aims to complete the acquisition of the Al Jadah mixed-use complex and partially repay the fund’s outstanding financing. The company’s share price fell by 0.68 percent to end at SR7.30.
