Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) started the new month on a ‎muted note with a loss of -74 points (-0.7%) to close at ‎‎10,823 levels. TASI opened the session positively, up +32 ‎points from the previous close, and reached its intraday high ‎of +61 points in early hours of trading. However, investors ‎opted to stay cautious ahead of the weekend and the index ‎gradually declined till the before the closing auction to -31 ‎points from the previous close. TASI lost another 43 points in ‎the final auction. In general, 10 out of 20 sectors closed in the ‎red, while 73 stocks rose and 124 stocks declined. Banks (-‎‎1.5%), Energy (-1.1%), and Telecom (-1.4%) sectors were the ‎major drags on the index and contributed a total of -76 ‎points, while the Real Estates (+1.1%) sector gave some ‎support to the index. Stocks-wise, Aramco (-1.2%), Saudi ‎British Bank (-5%), and STC (-2.5%) pulled the index down ‎the most. The trading activity witnessed a decline in volume ‎and value by 27% and 39%, respectively, to reach 123mn ‎shares and SAR4.9bn‏. ‏TASI is consolidating at its support ‎area below the 11k mark. Market is trading in an oversold ‎region on many technical indicators. The possibility of index ‎retesting a key psychological level of 11k is high.‎

 

 

Market Wrap International:

The global equity markets edged lower on Friday as latest economic ‎data in the U.S partially dented optimism around moderation of ‎rate hike in the upcoming FOMC meeting. Furthermore, investors ‎were also looking for further tangible hints on the economic ‎reopening story in China. In the U.S, the benchmark indices turned ‎lower by 0.12% (S&P 500) % and 0.18% (Nasdaq Composite) on ‎Friday post the release of labor market data which showed job ‎addition beating consensus estimates by a big margin. Energy, ‎utilities and IT were the three worst performing sectors for the ‎session.‎

In Europe, the Stoxx Euro 600 Index underwent intraday volatility ‎post the data release in the U.S and traded as low as 1% before ‎erasing its losses to close with little change. Major country-level ‎indices in the region also moved sideways before closing with minor ‎changes.‎

 

In Asia, investors were more cautious and looked for further clarity ‎around a major theme in the region on economic re-opening in ‎China. All major indices in the region closed with KOSPI (-1.8%), ‎TOPIX (-1.6%) and SENSEX (-0.7%) being the major losers. ‎‎