Saudi agriculture and food stocks dominate Tadawul trading

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) dug in at 8,044.47 and ended its Thursday’s trading up over 38 points or half percent.
It went 50.4 points above and 31.5 points below the break-even line during the day.
On an YTD basis, TASI registered a positive return of 18.28 percent.
Large cap with 0.65 percent upward jump remained prominent among market cap indices.
Most of the major sector indices finished to the upside, accumulating an aggregate of 458.6 points.
Agriculture & Food Industries outperformed among the sectoral indices, advancing 1.43 percent for the day.
Transport sector added considerable 1.23 percent to close at 5,274.04 points.
Most of heavyweights extended gains, with Saudi Telecom outdid rest of its peers, advancing 2.31 percent to close at SR 48.8.
Market breadth was positive, whereby 78 symbols closed in green and 59 closed in red, while 20 remained unchanged.
City Cement Co. and the Mediterranean & Gulf Insurance topped the performance chart at Tadawul, surging by 3.75 percent and 3.56 percent respectively.
Yesterday, the board of directors of City Cement announced the recommendation of a cash dividend of SR 1.0 per share to its shareholders for the 3rd quarter of current year.
Perhaps, the investors were inclined to participate in the company after this announcement.
Tadawul volume went slightly down by 3.4 percent and traded 171 million shares as compared to previous day’s 177.2 million shares. Roughly SR 4.5 billion was poured into the market.
The 50-day average for trading turnover is closer to 212.6 million shares worth SR5.4 billion.
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company appeared to be the most active stock of the day, liquidating 18.6 million shares, which equates 10.9 percent of overall market volume.
While, market leader SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) pumping a liquidity of SR 408.7 million secured its most liquid status, closing at SR 99.75.