Saudi- Tadawul up further; volume improves 

(MENAFN - Arab News) The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) gained nominal 6.94 points and closed at 6,804.03 points on Saturday.

Saudi stocks were hovering in small gains and losses on its first trading day of the week. Selling pressure prevailed at Tadawul which created a situation of indecision between bulls and bears and Saudi equities changed a little from earlier levels. The Media & Publishing and Real Estate Development sectors were major gainers among sectoral indices, which marginally increased by 3.5 percent and 2.5 percent respectively. Cement and Agriculture & Food Industries sectors were the worst performing sectors, down by 0.56 percent and 0.54 percent respectively.

The market breadth was negative with 66 stocks witnessing declines against 65 stocks registering advances and the prices of 18 companies remained unchanged.

Volumes, however, improved by 5 percent as 372.5 million shares, worth SR7.69 billion changed hands during the day, an improvement from 354.8 million shares, worth SR7.75 billion that were traded on Wednesday. On the other hand the number of transaction decreased by 2.8 percent to 167,445 trades.

The top gainers among Saudi stocks were National Agriculture Marketing Co. (THIMAR) and SABB Takaful which rose by 9.97 percent, while major losers were Takween Advanced Industries and Trade Union which declined by 8.1 percent and 6.5 percent respectively.

Dar Alarkan Real Estate Development remained as most active stock for Saturday and occupied the first position in terms of trading volume and value as well. Its trading volume reached to 38.7 million shares with a turnover of SR348.2 million. It was followed by SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) with a turnover of SR347.8 million.