Market cap rises to SR 1.45 trillion

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index turned green last week, recovering entirely from previous week’s losses and again crossing 7,000-points mark.
The TASI continued stepping its way higher throughout the week to close in the green at 7,062.98 points, up 80 points or 1.15 percent, from its previous weekend close at 6,982.89 points. It performed within a trading range of 88.6 points last week. On year-to-date basis, the index showed a collection of 262 points or 3.85 percent.
Total market capitalization of Saudi stock exchange increased to SR 1.45 trillion as compared to previous week’s value, an increase of 1.2 percent. Med cap outperformed among the market cap indices, posting a weekly growth of 1.7 percent.
All sectors extended weekly gains except Insurance, which pared 23.4 points or 1.86 percent to close at 1,232.38 levels. Wataniya Insurance, Gulf Union Insurance and Amana Cooperative Insurance were major decliners, going down by 16.4 percent, 7.3 percent and 7.2 percent respectively.
Remaining 14 sectors accumulated more than 1,183 points last week. Hotel & Tourism sector continued its upward march for the third consecutive week, surging over three percent to 9,259.1. Media and Real Estate sectors were other significant gainers, advancing 2.7 percent and 2.4 percent respectively.
Most of heavyweights marched higher from previous week’s level, with SABB rising by 6.33 percent, Kingdom Holding 3.41 percent and Saudi Arabia Fertilizers Co. (SAFCO) 3.14 percent.
Weekly market breadth remained favorable as the total number of rising stocks exceeded to the total number of falling stocks by a margin of 91 to 55 and the prices of 10 companies remained unchanged.
Allied Cooperative Insurance Group stepped up to occupy the top position at Tadawul, surging SR 9.0 or 15.6 percent further to SR 66.75. Tourism Enterprises Co. also continued to show a tremendous performance for the fifth straight week, marching higher by 13.6 percent further.
Investors continued to flow an optimal level of turnover; specifically, 1.1 billion shares worth SR 28 billion changed hands on the Saudi stock market last week. Furthermore, upside-downside volume ratio of 1.03:1 remained positive.
New player Northern Region Cement with trades over 268.8 million shares worth SR 6.3 billion remained as the most active stock of the week. But the company posted the largest weekly losses, falling 21.5 percent and closing at SR 21.2.
All benchmark indices at GCC stock markets ended the week in green.
The benchmark GulfBase GCC General Index closed the week higher at 4,096.25 points level, adding 31.6 points or 0.78 percent for the entire week.