Tadawul Review: 

Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) ended Wednesday’s session ‎with a minor drop of 12 points (-0.1%) to settle at 11,293 ‎levels.  The index opened the session negatively by 6 points ‎from the previous close and continued declining to reach its ‎intraday low by -65 points before recovering at the end of ‎the session.In general, 15 out of 20 sectors closed in the red ‎zone, while 132 stocks fell and 83 rose.  Banks (-0.2%), ‎Utilities (-1.7%), and Energy (-0.2%) sectors contributed the ‎most to the index's fall of 16 points. Stockwise, Saudi ‎National Bank (-1.2%), Al Rajhi Bank (-0.4%), and Etihad ‎Etisalat (-2.6%) contributed most to the fall of the index. The ‎trading activity witnessed a decline in volume and value by ‎‎9%% and 7%, respectively, to reach 222mn shares and ‎SAR5.7bn in value traded. The index is likely to see more ‎sessions with sideways moves in near-term.‎

 

 

 

Market Wrap International:

The global equity markets moved in divergent directions on ‎Wednesday despite better than expected CPI data in the U.S. ‎The debate on soft lending and recession in the U.S, recent ‎performance of key indices and the expected drop in earnings ‎of S&P 500 Companies continued to play up in investors’ ‎minds. The CPI for April-23 of 4.9% YoY (+0.5% MoM) came ‎slightly lower than consensus expectations and reinforced the ‎market view of possible pause in the upcoming FOMC ‎meeting. The treasury yields in the U.S dropped by 8-11bps ‎with 2-yr yield slipping below 4% mark again. The key equity ‎gauges, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite Index, were up 0.4% ‎and 1.0%. 7 out of 11 sectors delivered positive returns in the ‎S&P 500 Index with Communication Services in the lead.‎

In Europe, the CPI data in the U.S failed to contain the ‎market cautiousness over the upcoming monetary policy as ‎the earning season draws to a close. The Stoxx Europe 600 ‎Index dropped by 0.4% amid intraday volatility. Country level ‎indices too moved down in the range of 0.3-0.5%.‎

 

In Asia, the key indices dropped for the second straight ‎session. The weak trade data in China a day before and no ‎major trigger in near-term weighed on market direction. All ‎major equity indices dropped in the range of 0.5-1.1% barring ‎SENSEX in India  by 0.3 which managed to broadly hold its ‎ground.  ‎‎‎