Saudi to set up special economic zone

Foreigners sold net $1.1bln of Saudi stocks

DUBAI, Oct 21, (Agencies): Saudi Arabia announced the establishment of a special economic zone to draw more foreign investment, state news agency SPA reported on Sunday.

The zone, which will be located in King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, will focus on integrated logistics and enjoy special rules and regulations aiming at attracting more multinational companies to the Kingdom, SPA said.

Meanwhile, foreigners sold a net 4.01 billion riyal ($1.07 billion) in Saudi stocks in the week ending Oct 18, exchange data showed on Sunday - one of the biggest selloff since the market opened to direct foreign buying in mid-2015.

The selloff came during a week when investors were rattled by Saudi Arabia’s deteriorating relations with foreign powers following the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

A breakdown of the data showed foreigners sold 5 billion riyals worth of stocks and bought 991.3 million worth.

The Saudi stock market is down about 4 percent since Khashoggi’s disappeared. The market had started to weaken before the incident as foreign funds slowed their buying after MSCI’s announcement in June that the kingdom will be included in its global emerging market benchmark next year.

In other news, the energy giant Aramco announced last week the commissioning of Yanbu South Terminal (YST) which added three million barrels per day to the West Coast export capacity when the first VLCC was loaded on Oct 12, 2018.

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Oman’s oil and condensates output increased to 990,200 barrels per day (bpd) in September, the oil ministry wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

The sultanate’s production was 974,500 bpd on average in August and 975,500 bpd in July.