Arab News

Tadawul: NCB shares rise 5%

-

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul AllShare Index was flat Thursday as gains by the Kingdom’s largest listed lender helped offset losses by petrochemi­cal, cement and retail stocks.

National Commercial Bank climbed almost five percent.

But Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), one of the world’s largest petrochemi­cals group lost 0.6 percent. Saudi Cement, one of the Kingdom’s largest cement firms by market value, declined 1.5 percent.

Saudi retailer Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair Co. was down 2.5 percent.

Gulf stock markets saw lackluster trade on Wednesday as low oil prices and weak earnings weighed on investor sentiment.

Crude prices declined for a third day, hovering near $50 a barrel for the first time in three weeks, amid doubts that OPEC members will agree to a cut output.

“Investor sentiment appears to be weak in general on low earnings visibility,” said Vijay Harpalani, fund manager at Dubai-based Al Mal Capital.

The potential for an agreement among OPEC producers, the upcoming US elections and a likely Fed rate hike in December have added to uncertaint­y in the nearterm, Harpalani said.

Abu Dhabi’s index was flat, with trade dominated by stocks due to report third quarter earnings after the market close.

Dubai’s index slipped almost one percent, dragged down by Emaar Properties which has the largest weighting on the benchmark. The Dubai developer lost 1.9 percent.

Kuwait’s index ose 0.27 percent, lifted by the country’s biggest telecoms operator by subscriber­s, Zain. Zain jumped 2.44 percent to 420 fils.

 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Saudi Arabia