The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed higher yesterday, strengthened by gains in banking and petrochemical stocks.
“The rise in index is mainly due to overall good news from the US and Europe,” said Farouk Miah, head of equity research at NCB Capital.
“Strong employment data from the US and positive comments on Europe helped the market,” he told Arab News.
“Also 68 percent of US stocks have reported better than expected Q2 results, leading to good performance of Saudi market today,” said the analyst.
The stocks continued to rise this month after registering 2.51 percent increase in July.
The index ended 0.86 percent up yesterday at 6,951.66 points and the petrochemical index closed 0.61 percent higher at 6,053.94 points.
Stocks of the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) gained 1.11 percent to SR 90.75.
The banking index ended 1 percent higher at 15,779 points boosted by gains in heavyweight Al-Rajhi Bank, which added 1.37 percent to SR73.75.
The value of traded shares reached SR 6.78 billion yesterday.
“With almost SR 7 billion trading volume for the day, there is a clear sign of healthy liquidity in the market,” said Basil Al-Ghalayini, CEO of BMG Financial Group.
“Furthermore, there is a sign of bigger appetite for risk taking as well,” he told Arab News.
A research report from Jadwa Investment said that TASI rose in July, reversing a three-month losing streak.
At the end of July, the Tadawul index closed at 6,878.19 points, gaining 168.28 points over the close of the previous month.
“The rise came in line with an uptrend in global stock markets and oil prices. Contrary to their normal pattern in Ramadan, volumes are barely changed from their June level,” the report said.