Tadawul falls to a six-month low

Saudi Arabia’s stock market fell to a six-month low on Thursday, missing out on a wider emerging markets rebound, according to Reuters.

The MSCI emerging market index was up 1.1 per cent but the Saudi index closed 0.6 per cent lower at 7,591 points, with losers outnumbering gainers by 107 to 56.

The Saudi market is still up 5 per cent year-to-date, far outperforming a 12 per cent drop by the emerging market index.

But individual investors have been net sellers of Saudi stocks for most of the past several weeks while institutions have become more cautious because of instability in emerging markets and global trade tensions.

Top petrochemical company Saudi Basic Industries fell 1.2 per cent while Sahara Petrochemical lost 1.1 per cent after announcing an emergency shutdown of an affiliate for as much as 17 days because of power outages; it estimated this could cost 23.3 million riyals (Dh22.8mn) in profits.

Insurer MedGulf sank 7.4 per cent after surging on the two previous days because shareholders were entitled to a discounted rights issue, as of end-Wednesday.

Saudi Paper rose 1.4 per cent, however, as it resumed trading after a suspension of two days due to a capital decrease.

Kuwait’s blue chip index, in an uptrend for the past two weeks ahead of Kuwait’s partial entry into FTSE Russell’s emerging market index on September 24, rose 0.4 per cent to 5,349 points.

But in Egypt, the index sank 1.2 per cent to 15,326 points, dragged down by weakness in real estate stocks, which have been under pressure since emerging market currency turmoil that began a month ago constrained the Egyptian central bank’s room to ease monetary policy.

In Bahrain the index added 0.3 per cent to 1,345 points. In Oman the index rose 0.6 percent to 4,559 points. United Arab Emirates markets were closed for a public holiday. Oil traded below $70 a barrel as investors assessed whether other Opec members can fill the supply gap created by US sanctions on Iran and the economic collapse in Venezuela, according to Bloomberg.

Futures in New York dropped as much as 1.8 per cent after closing at the highest in almost two months.