Tadawul declines after early rise

Despite an upward jump (+11.9 points) after the opening bell, the Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) finished with a surprise decline of 0.34 percent on Wednesday.
The index performed within a range of 54.7 points, closing the day at 7,774.51. On year-to-date basis, it showed a collection of roughly 973 points or 14.31 percent.
Among market cap indices only Micro cap was able to close a little higher (+0.3 percent).
Four out of Tadawul's 15 sectors ended the day in green territory, accumulating only 66.6 points collectively. Remaining 11 sectors lost an aggregate of 312.7 points for the day. Sectoral performance was dominated by Multi-Investment and Agriculture sectors, offsetting their performance by more than one percent positive-negative change.
Top ten heavyweight equities ended the day in a mixed fashion. The losses made by the Samba Financial Group (-1.44 percent) and Al-Rajhi Bank (-0.99 percent) being offset by rise in Saudi Telecom (+0.74 percent) and Kingdom holding (+0.55 percent).
The total number of falling stocks exceeded to the total number of rising stocks by a margin of 81 to 52.
Among all Saudi stocks, new player Aljazira Takaful Taawuni Company showing notable gains of 9.77 percent became the top performer for the fourth straight day. Tabouk Cement Co. was another significant advancer, surging 5.43 percent for the day.
Gulf Union Insurance, on the contrary, delivered a largely negative performance, slipping 9.89 percent to SR30.1.
Market activity was a little low for the day; specifically 189 million shares worth SR4.9 billion were liquidated at Tadawul. This turnover reflects a daily decrease of 9.5 percent on volume basis and 10.9 percent in terms of liquidity.
But upside-downside volume ratio of 1.4:1 remained favorable.