(MENAFN - Arab News) Saudi shares dived last week amid heavy selling pressures due to deteriorating US and European market indices and fluctuating oil prices.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) plunged 6.36 percent last week, closing at 5,609.02 points. It was the Saudi market's worst weekly performance since January.
TASI is currently 16.8 percent higher than the year's start.
The trading was also marred last week by the announcement of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) that it has fined a key local investor and shareholder in several listed companies for insider trading.
The Riyadh-based Bakheet Investment Group (BIG) expects volatility to continue at the Saudi market until the first week of July when businesses start releasing their quarterly balance sheets.
Trading value reached SR30.9 billion last week compared to SR36.7 billion in the previous week. Weqaya Takaful Insurance and Reinsurance Co., which made its debut on the Saudi stock market with a bang on June 20, stayed in a positive territory. Weqaya was the top gainer with a 193-percent increase in its share price for the week.
The other major gainer last week was The Mediterranean & Gulf Insurance & Reinsurance Co. Its shares surged 9.16 percent to SR27.40. Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) dominated trading value at 7.37 percent last week. Its shares, however, closed 7.37 percent down at SR66.
Shares in Aldrees Petroleum & Transport Services Co. and Sahara Petrochemical Co. dropped sharply last week by 15.32 percent and 15.26 percent respectively.
Arab stock markets plunged across the board last week, as investors came under "psychological" pressure from bad performance of global markets and pessimistic predictions of second quarter profits, financial analysts said yesterday.
"I believe that Arab investors have come again to closely monitor the situation in the world markets," Wajdi Makhamreh, chief operating office at the Amman-based Sanabel International Holding, said.
Jordanian shares also plummeted last week, led by the Arab Bank.
"The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) was the scene for panic selling that culminated on Thursday," Makhamreh said.
The ASE all-share price index plunged 3.99 percent last week, closing at 2,829 points, according to the market's weekly report.
Kuwait's KSE all-share price index shed 1.7 percent last week, to close at 8,140 points.
The benchmark prices of the United Arab Emirates stock exchanges of Dubai and Abu Dhabi plunged 7.7 percent and 6.1 percent, closing respectively at 1,859 points and 2,628 points.Egypt's AGX30 index, measuring the performance of the market's 30 most active stocks, dived 11.1 percent last week, closing at 5,479 points.
The GulfBase GCC index fell 4.08 percent to 3,636.94 points last week. The value of GCC traded shares plunged 22 percent to 12.86 billion and volume declined by 40.20 percent to 7.43 billion of shares.
By Khalil Hanware, With input from Abdul Jalil Mustafa
