Banks lead drop in Saudi stocks

Saudi Arabia’s stock market fell to a one-month low yesterday as banks led blue-chip declines amid negative investor sentiment, while Qatar firmed, helped by a rebound in Qatar Fuel shares.

UAE markets were closed for a religious holiday, while other bourses closed mixed in lacklustre trade.

The Saudi index fell 2.2 per cent, with 165 declining stocks out of 180 being traded and only 11 stocks advancing.

Al Rajhi Bank fell 2.9 per cent and National Commercial Bank, the kingdom’s largest lender by assets, closed 3.5 per cent down.

Saudi schools operator National Company for Learning and Education closed 5.3 per cent higher than its initial public offer price, on its first day of trade; earlier, it had risen by its 10 per cent daily limit.

The company sold 13 million shares or 30.23 per cent of its expanded capital in last month’s IPO. The institutional tranche, accounting for 90 per cent of the offer, was 155 per cent subscribed, a smaller oversubscription than in past IPOs.

In Qatar, the index rose 0.8 per cent on a 7.6 per cent gain by Qatar Fuel. The stock had dropped 5.6 per cent on Thursday and 10 pe rcent on Wednesday in response to MSCI’s decision, against market expectations, not to include the stock in its global indexes.

Industries Qatar and Islamic bank Masraf Al Rayan rose 0.8 per cent each. In Egypt, the index jumped 2.1 per cent, with most of its stocks advancing.

Kuwait’s blue-chip index, Bahrain and Oman were flat.