Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) fell for the sixth straight ‎session on Thursday and lost another -103 points (-0.9%) to ‎close at 11,376 levels. TASI opened the session negatively by ‎‎-36 points from the previous but then the index rose to its ‎intraday high, however, the index gradually declined until the ‎end of the session. In general, 14 out of 20 sectors closed in ‎the red zone, while 127 of 223 shares fell and 80 rose. Banks ‎‎(-1.7%), Materials (-0.6%), and Utilities (-2.5%) sectors ‎contributed the most to the index's -38-point fall. Stockwise, ‎Al Rajhi Bank (-0.8%), Saudi Fransi (-4.8%), and Saudi Awwal ‎Bank (-1.5%) were the major contributors. The trading ‎activity witnessed an increase in volume and value by 26% ‎and 6%, respectively, to reach 258mn shares and SAR5.7bn in ‎value traded. TASI has lost cumulatively 88 points in the last ‎six sessions, dragged primarily by bank stocks. ‎

 

 

 

Market Wrap International:

The global equity market ended another dramatic week on a ‎muted note. The Fed Speak post the surprising week cut, ‎macro data, optimism in China and ongoing result ‎season  were some of the highlights of the week. For the U.S ‎market, the macro data has rather added to market confusion ‎on key issues of the need to do further rate and the debate ‎around soft/hard lending. The wage data for the foregoing ‎month came in hotter than expected. The sovereign yields in ‎the U.S closed the volatile week with a leg-down (11-17bps ‎drop) over a 2-10 year curve. The S&P 500 failed to maintain ‎its intraday gains and closed with 0.5% losses. Apple’s results ‎were the major drag for the tech names. 9 out of 11 sectors in ‎the S&P 500 recorded losses.‎

In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index managed to partially ‎pare weekly losses and gained 0.3%. The ongoing result season, ‎and strong oil prices provided support the benchmark. The ‎country level indices were also up in the range of 0.4-0.8%.‎

In Asia, the new measures to support the property sector by ‎the Chinese authorities lifted Hang Seng (+0.6%) and CSI300 ‎Index (+0.4%) . Indices in India (Nifty50:+0.7%) and Japan ‎‎(Topix:+0.3%) also recorded gains on new policy ‎announcements for imports and result season respectively. ‎Indices in Korea and Taiwan were down by a marginal 0.1-‎‎0.3%.‎