Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) ended Wednesday's session up for ‎the second day in a row by +27 points (+0.3%), to close at 10,248 ‎levels. TASI opened the session positively, up +69 points, and ‎continued to rise in the first hours of trading as it reached its ‎intraday high, surpassing the level of 10,300, achieving +165 points ‎from the previous close, but TASI began to decline after that to ‎reduce its profits by 138 points. In general, 16 sectors out of 20 ‎closed in the green zone, while 127 shares rose and 69 fell. Health ‎Care Equipment & Svc sector contributed the most to the index's ‎rise (+4.4%), followed by Energy (+1.1%), and Food & Beverages ‎‎(+1.2%), as they contributed to the index's rise with a total of 23 ‎points. Stock-wise, Aramco (+1%), Arab National Bank (+4.9%), ‎and Riyad Bank (+1.9%) contributed most to the stability and rise ‎of the index. The trading activity witnessed a decline in the volume ‎and value of trading by 35% and 8%, respectively, to reach 348mn ‎shares and SAR5.2bn.‎

 

 

Market Wrap International:

The global equity indices turned lower on Wednesday on the ‎disappointment over the Fed dot plot (the median forecast of ‎Fed policy makers) and comments of the Fed Chair. A 50bps ‎rate hike by FOMC to 4-4.25 (upper and lower bound) was ‎broadly expected however guidance on terminal rate of 5.1% ‎came ahead of market expectations which had used the ‎recent CPI print as its anchor. The benchmark S&P 500 and ‎Nasdaq Composite swung from gains to losses post the rate ‎hike decision and closed with losses of 0.6% and 0.8% ‎respectively. 10 out of 11 listed industrial groups in the S&P ‎‎500 were red. Treasury yields moved in divergent directions.‎

The indices in Europe broadly moved lower in the last session ‎on soft CPI print in the U.S. Investors remained cautious with ‎important decisions from the central banks to be announced ‎‎(FED, ECB, BOE). The benchmark Stoxx Euro 600 Index ‎remained negative for most of the session and made an ‎intraday low of 0.7% before paring most of its losses and ‎closing little changed on Wednesday the country level indices ‎were lower by 0.1-0.3% at session close.‎

In Asia, markets celebrated soft CPI data and further ‎affirmation of economic reopening in China. Tech-based ‎Indices with heavy tilt to exports were the major gainers with ‎KOSPI (+1.1%), and TAIEX (+1.5%) emerging as the best ‎performers followed by HangSeng (+0.4%) and TOPIX ‎‎(+0.6%). Reportedly, the Chinese authorities have decided to ‎count only symptomatic cases in the overall infection cases, ‎hinting at a more accommodative stance towards COVID-19.‎