By: Thabet Shehata

Riyadh - Mubasher: The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) ended Monday’s trading session with its biggest decline in a month and a half on the back of negative performances dominating the market sectors.

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) dropped 1.14%, losing 80.24 points, and closed at the level of 6,969.30 points, going below the level of 7,000 points for the first time in 12 sessions.

Traded values reached SAR 4.5 billion ($1.2 billion) compared to SAR 3.15 billion ($840.8 million) in the previous session, reaching its highest level since 26 January.

Traded volumes also increased to 266.13 million shares up from 190 million shares on Sunday.

The Nomu-Parallel Market ended the session declining by 1.62% or 97 points, and closed at 5,902.82 points, as Baazeem and Raydan went down by 9.32% and 3.65%, respectively.

All of the Saudi market sector closed in red except for the utilities index, which saw a marginal gain of 0.02% after Saudi Electricity increased by 0.08% and closed at SAR 23.95.

REITs dropped 9.9%, as Riyadh REIT dropped by the same percentage while AlJazira REIT retreated by 9.86%.

The materials sector decreased by 1.1% as SABIC and SAFCO fell 1.08% and 1.94%, closing at SAR 96.75 and SAR 70.25, respectively.

Similarly, the banks sector also went down by 0.85% as Al Rajhi and NCB declined 0.49% and 1.35%, closing at SAR 64.50 and SAR 40.90, respectively.

Al Rajhi Takaful was the biggest losing stock and dropped 9.29%, while SADAFCO led the six gainers and added 1.36%.

Alinma continued to register the highest turnover at SAR 435.46 million, while Dar Al Arkan was the most active in traded volumes with 44.87 million shares.