By: Thabet Shehata

Riyadh – Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) ended the third week in August in the red, resuming its losses on the back of a semi-collective decline of its sectors and low liquidity.

The TASI general index dropped 1.56% or 98.6 points and closed at 6,227.03 points, down from the previous week's closing of 6,325.62 points.

Market value lost SAR 21.16 billion ($5.64 billion) this week to settle at SAR 1.44 trillion ($385.27 billion) down from SAR 1.47 trillion ($390.91 billion) last week.

TASI closed Sunday at a rise, then retreated for three straight sessions, and ended Thursday marginally up.

Profit-taking on oil during the week pressured the Saudi market, which, amid low liquidity, is quickly affected by negative news, said Ali Al-Zahrany, head of asset management at Musharaka Capital.

Falling below the 6,000-point level may result in losing control over the market, prompting sharp declines towards the level of 5,850 points, the analyst told Mubasher. However, he discarded that theory at the present time.

Traded value was down slightly by 0.7% week-on-week to SAR 15.05 billion ($4.01 billion) in the week ended 18 August from SAR 15.16 billion ($4.04 billion), bringing average turnover per session to SAR 3.01 billion.

Similarly, traded volume declined by 2.9% to 831.83 million shares this week from 856.72 million shares in the week ended 11 August.

Weak liquidity has been fairly dominant in the market lately owing to the summer holidays, weak confidence and government portfolios not pumping liquidity, the Al-Zahrany told Mubasher.

Sector-wise, all were in the red, with the exception of the energy sector which gained 1.07% as Saudi Electricity and National Gas grew 0.37% and 6.14% to SAR 19.10 and SAR 28.86, respectively.

The building and construction sector led losers, falling 4.97% after Aslak slid 13.32% to SAR 25.05 and Red Sea Housing retreated 6.94% to SAR 24.94.

The banking sector lost 1.15% after AlRajhi Bank declined 1.95% to SAR 56.41, while NCB edged down 0.03% to SAR 36.99.

It is likely that Tadawul will continue its jittery-to-negative performance until the Eid Al-Adha holidays, the analyst said, indicating that a return of liquidity would boost market performance, especially after many stocks have fallen to attractive buying levels.

Translated by: Nada Adel Sobhi