* Ahmed Al-Rasheed from Riyadh
Saudi stocks fell from their highest level in three years to close at 8,842 points, 0.33 percent, by about 28 points due to the pressure from " Basic Materials", but it has maintained gains since the beginning of the week.
The decline comes after two sessions of gains; the market reached the highest level since August 2015.
With the market maintaining levels above 8,350 points and an average of 21 days, the chance of further upside is possible, especially if companies continue to show positive results for the second quarter of this year, but the continued decline of oil may threaten the upside.
The chances of reaching 8620 - 8800 points will remain subject to market conditions above the 21-day average and positive results from companies.
Overall market performance
The index opened at 8490 points. It moved to the lowest point in the session at 8437 points, losing 0.63 per cent. At the end of the session, the general index closed at 8462 points, losing 28 points, 0.3 percent.
Liquidity declined 17 percent by about 56.8 million riyals to reach 2.8 billion riyals, or 31,000 riyals.
While traded shares fell 15 percent by 18 million traded shares to reach 106 million shares traded, and the turnover rate was 0.2 percent. Transactions rose 1 percent to reach 92,000 transactions.
Sector performance
Five sectors rose against the rest.
The rise was led by "Insurance" by 0.8%, followed by "Media" by 0.55% and "Food Fragmentation" by 0.3%.
The decline was led by "food production" by 1.1%, followed by "energy" by 0.9%, and then "medicines" by 0.9 per cent.
The highest turnovers were "Basic Materials" of 34 percent with a value of SR 949 million, followed by "banks" by 28 per cent with a value of 785 million riyals, and "Insurance" of 13% with a value of 360 million riyals.
Stock performance
The rise was led by "Al-inma Tokyo M" closing at SAR21.36, followed by "Enaya" for the maximum closing at SAR 31.80 and "FIPCO" with 4.56% closing at SAR36.70.
On the other hand, the decline was led by "SRMG" of 3.9% to close at SAR 44.30, followed by "Alujain" by 3.2% to close at SAR 32.80 and "Care" by 2.6% to close at SAR 56.50.
"SABIC" had the highest turnover of SAR 494 million (17 per cent), followed by "Alinma" (SR 416 million) at 15 per cent and "Al Rajhi" by 7 per cent (SR 203 million).
* Economic Reports Unit
