Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) ended Thursday's session up ‎for the third day in a row by +86 points (+0.8%) to close at ‎‎10,278 levels. TASI opened the session positively, up 46 ‎points from the previous close, and continued its strong rise ‎during the first hours of trading to reach its intraday high, ‎achieving +139 points, before the index retreated and ‎reduced some of its gains for the rest of the session. In ‎general, 14 out of 20 sectors closed in the green, while 125 ‎stocks rose and 87 fell. Banks (+1.6%), Materials (+0.3%), and ‎Energy (+0.6%) sectors contributed the most to the index's ‎rise of +67 points. Stock-wise, Al Rajhi Bank (+2.2%), Aramco ‎‎(+0.6%), and Saudi British Bank (+3.5%) contributed most to ‎the rise of the index. The trading activity witnessed an ‎increase in volume and value by 2% and 24%, respectively, to ‎reach 171mn shares and SAR5.1bn. With a strong rebound in ‎oil prices, TASI appears to have a strong support to sustain ‎its current recovery in the near-term.

 

 

 

Market Wrap International:

The global equity indices painted a completely different ‎picture going into the last trading session of the week ‎triggered by a latest dovish comment from the Fed official. The ‎treasury yields retreated from recent highs while commodity ‎prices also bounced back. The optimism of further economic ‎stimulus in China also provided further stimulus. In the U.S, ‎the equity benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq ‎Composite jumped 1.6% and 2% respectively. All eleven ‎sectors on the S&P 500 index moved higher as the index ‎settled above the 4,000 mark to mark positive weekly closing ‎after a gap of four weeks.‎

In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose 0.9% on Friday to ‎mark weekly gains of 1.6%. The lift to prices was provided by ‎the comments from Fed officials and the data showing drop in ‎inflation for the region, albeit slower than expected, for Feb-‎‎23. County level indices moved in the same direction‎

 

In Asia, markets recorded first weekly gains in over a month as ‎latest economic data in China and Japan and optimism of ‎further economic stimulus fueled gains in key equity ‎benchmarks. The major indices jumped 0.1-1.6%. Sensex in ‎India (+1.5%) and Nikkei 225 (+1.6%) were the major gainers. ‎‎