* Ahmed Al-Rasheed from Riyadh
Saudi stocks returned to profitability at 8242 points, 12 points up 0.15 per cent, which was supported by the basic materials sector. The rally comes after five losing sessions.
The rise comes after the market showed some cohesion referred to in the previous report, where volatility declined with trading in the Green Zone during the trading and controlling of the selling pressure to compensate for part of the losses. The closure is slightly lower than the opening level.
The stability and the shift in profitability come after the emergence of most of the results of companies and the approaching deadline for the disclosure of the second quarter, in which companies achieved a growth rate of 21% to exceed the profits of 30 billion riyals until yesterday.
Going back above 50 and 21-day averages will increase risk appetite and market appetite as performance improves, pushing it back to the market in about a month.
Overall market performance
The general index opened at 8230 points, trading between high and low.
The lowest point was 8208 points, losing 0.3 per cent, while the highest point was at 8,242 points, 0.15 per cent. It closed at 12 points.
Trading values rose 11 percent by about SR 493 millions to reach SR 4.7 billion, or SAR 48,000 per transaction.
Traded shares rose 7 per cent by about 10 million shares to reach 156 million shares; the turnover rate was 0.30 per cent. Deals rose 1 percent to reach 99,000 deals.
Sector performance
11 sectors rose against the decline of the rest.
The rise was led by "Food production" that rose by 1.1 per cent, followed by "energy" by 1 per cent and "pharmaceuticals" by 0.9 per cent.
The decline was led by "Insurance" that was down 1.5 per cent, followed by "real estate traded funds" by 1 per cent and "utilities" by 0.9 per cent.
The highest turnovers were "Basic Materials" by 37% that valued at SR 1.7 billion, followed by "banks" by 31 per cent with a value of 1.5 billion riyals, and "insurance" by 16 per cent, amounting to 761 million riyals.
Stock performance
The rise was led by "Chemanol" with the maximum closing at SAR12.86, followed by "Anaam Holding" by 5.8% to close at SAR11.92, and "Amana Insurance" by 5.2% to close at SAR19.96.
The decline was led by "Tawuniya" with the maximum closing at SAR 57.60, followed by "Arabian Shield" by 4.7 per cent to close at SAR 19.88, and "AlAhli Reit 1" by 3.8 per cent to close at SAR 8.18.
"SABIC" was the most heavily traded issue with a value of SAR 1.2 billion at 26 per cent, followed by "Alinma" by 25 per cent with a value of SAR 1.2 billion, and "BUPA Arabia" by 9 per cent with a value of SAR 445 million.
* Economic Reports Unit
