Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) ended Wednesday's session up by +76 points (+0.7%), to close at 10,573 levels. TASI opened the session negatively, down by 42 points from the previous close, but the index then reversed direction to start building its positive momentum and complete the session in positive manners, closing at its intraday high. In general, 13 out of 20 sectors closed in the green zone, while 112 stocks rose and 97 fell. Banks (+1.1%), Energy (+0.7%), and Health care (+2.1%) sectors contributed the most to the index's rise of +52 points. Stock-wise, Aramco (+0.8%), Al Rajhi Bank (+0.8%), and Saudi National Bank (+1.1%) contributed most to the rise of the index. The trading activity witnessed an increase in volume and value by 23% and 8%, respectively, to reach 158mn shares and SAR4.1bn. TASI may look to rebuild its recovery in coming sessions though results from petrochemical stocks remain crucial to sustain the positive sentiment.

 

 

 

Market Wrap International:

The macro news flow remained at the forefront of the moves in the global markets on Wednesday with the latest retail sales and mortgage data in the U.S, CPI data in U.K and more monetary measures in China. The treasury yields recorded another session of gains following a broadly in-line CPI data in the U.S a day before. Investors also weighed the latest statement from the Fed officials for the future policy outlook. The volatility in equity benchmarks in the U.S sustained with S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite once again fluctuating around the previous close before recording 0.3% and 0.9% gains. Energy, and Health care were the key drags for the S&P 500.

In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index pared intraday losses to close with modest gains of 0.4%. Country level indices also showed similar gyrations before recording gains. The CPI in the U.K came in at 10.1%, below consensus expectation of 10.3%. The soft inflation data drew a positive response in FTSE-100.

 

In Asia, tech names and tech-heavy indices were in pressure with the latest disclosures showing the drop in ownership by one of the widely-followed asset managers. KOSPI (-1.5%) was one of the worst performers alongside HangSeng (-1.4%) and TAIEX (-1.4%). Other indices fell by 0.3-0.4%. SENSEX in India was broadly unchanged.