By Mohamed Abu Meleeh

Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) rose on Thursday, propelled mainly by the real estate sector after news about the share offering of Alandalus Property Co., which will be the first subscription in the sector in five years.

The market’s main index rose by 0.42% or 30.2 points to close at 7,238.56 points, compared with 7,208 yesterday. Thus, it extended a bull run to the third successive day, during which it gained 1.24% or 88.95 points to reach its highest close in a month.

The Capital Market Authority (CMA) announced yesterday floating of 21 million shares in Alandalus, which represent 30% of the company’s capital, during the period 17-23 December.

Alandalus IPO will be the first to be launched in Tadawul’s real estate sector in five years, after Knowledge Economic City (KEC) listing in 2010.

Alandalus will be the sector’s smallest company in terms of capital and number of shares.

Eleven sectors were in green, topped by real estate sector that advanced by 2.04% after seven, out of its eight companies, moved higher.

The Saudi market shrugged off impact from regional tensions after Turkey downed a Russian warplane near its borders with Syria.

Thursday’s traded volume rose by 5.7% to 209.5 million shares, from 198 million shares. Turnover also increased by 0.4% to SAR 4.43 billion from SAR 4.41 billion.

JAZADCO was the top performing stock, with a jump of 9.83%, followed by Saudi Real Estate (+5.17%), Makkah Construction (+495%). On the negative front, Amiantit led decliners (-4.58%), followed by Wataniya Insurance (-2.6%) and Al Tayyar (-2.57%).

Translated by Sayed Abdel Rahman