By: Thabet Shehata

Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) extended its downtrend in Monday’s closing, retreating for the third session in a row, following a semi-collective decline of its sectors and amid weak liquidity.

The general index fell 1.07% or 68.48 points to 6,359.91 points, its lowest level since 11 April.

Tadawul’s benchmark index continues to move downwards amid low liquidity, a sign that traders are awaiting May’s monthly closing, said capital market analyst Ahmed El-Malky.

If the monthly closing is below 6,423 points, then it the market is likely to see a weak performance on the medium-term, the analyst told Mubasher.

The media and publishing sector led fallers, losing 2.72%, as all its stocks were in the red. The petrochemicals sector retreated 1.52% after SABIC shed 1.38% to SAR 80. All of the sector’s stock were down with the exception of SAFCO, which gained 0.32%.

The banking sector recorded the lowest losses with 0.43%, after 10 stocks were down led by NCB, whereas Al Rajhi and Riyad Banks were up 0.78% and 0.09%, respectively.

One the flipside, the industrial investment was the only gainer after adding 0.11%, backed by Kingdom Holding Company which grew 3% to SAR 12.05.

Regional and global markets are anticipating the outcome of the OPEC meeting on 2 June and the US Fed meeting in mid-June.

Turnover fell to SAR 3.39 billion ($923 million) on Monday, compared to SAR 3.37 billion ($918 million) on Sunday.

Trading volume went up to 188.23 million shares, compared to 171.56 million shares.

Al Inma Bank was the value leader and most active stock after generating SAR 507 million from the exchange of 38.8 million shares. The bank’s stock slid 0.84% to SAR 13 at close.

Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi