Transport shares up 4.2 percent

(MENAFN- Arab News) JEDDAH: Despite a plunge of 0.37 percent after the opening bell Saudi Arabia's benchmark Tadawul All-Share Index dug in at 9768.09 and ended its Thursday's trading up over 36 points or 0.38 percent.
On an YTD basis TASI registered a positive return of 17.22 percent.
Micro cap and Med cap indices with 0.56 percent upward jump remained prominent the GulfBase said in its market commentary.
Most of the major sector indices finished to the upside accumulating an aggregate of 1187.8 points.
Transport outperformed among the sectoral indices surging 4.2 percent to 10413.71. Tourism and Retail sectors added considerable 1.39 percent and 1.12 percent respectively.
Market breadth was strong for the day as 109 stocks witnessing advances and other 41 stocks marking a decline.
Fitaihi Holding Group and National Shipping Co. of Saudi Arabia topped the performance chart at Tadawul posting a daily growth of 9.45 percent and 6.04 percent respectively.
Saudi Telecom Company showed the best performance among heavyweight equities advancing 0.78 percent to close the day at SR69.71.
Recently traded Saudi Co. for Tools and Hardware continued its sequential wins incrementing 91.6 percent in eight sessions.
Market activity was high; specifically 464 million shares worth SR12.3 billion were transacted at Tadawul.
This turnover reflects an increase of 92.1 percent on volume basis and 39.1 percent in terms of liquidity.
The 50-day average for trading turnover is closer to 329 million shares worth SR 8.8 billion.
Riyad Bank dominated the trading activity liquidating 151.3 million shares which equates 32.6 percent of the overall market volume. Interestingly the bank volume went 99.2 times high over its 50-day average.
The value of these shares totaled SR2.7 billion which accounted for roughly 21.8 percent of the Tadawul liquidity.