By Mouaz bin Saad

Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) ended 0.81% or 79.82 points lower at 9,731 points Wednesday.

Traded volume amounted to more than 241.6 million shares, exchanged in over 173,700 transactions at turnover exceeding SAR 8.8 billion.

Fourteen sectors were down, led by energy and utilities (-3.23%), then industrial investment (-2.07%) and hotels and tourism (-1.64%). Petrochemical industries was also down 1.44%.

Meanwhile, agriculture and food industries was the sole advancing sector.

As for stocks, decliners outnumbered advancers by 121 to 31.

Hardware retailing company SACO was the top gainer, soaring 5.08% to SAR 129. It was followed by Al Ahsa Development, which rose 3.13% to SAR 16.50, then Saudi Airlines Catering, which was up 2.04% to SAR 172.

Meanwhile, SABB Takaful was the biggest drag, falling 3.90% to SAR 44.60. Chemical came second with a 3.70% fall to SAR 80.75, followed by Bawan, which lost 3.65% to SAR 53.25.

Translated by Sayed Abdel Rahman