Tadawul All-Share index (TASI) ended Thursday's session positively and jumped 127 points (+1.19%), to settle at the level of 10,744. The market opened positively, with a difference of 13 points from the previous close, and maintained its positive trajectory throughout the day to close atits intraday high. The index added another 24 points to its gains in the closing auction. In general, 14 out of 20 sectors were closed in the green. While 119 shares rose and 87 shares fell. Banks (+2.4%), materials (+0.5%) and energy (+0.9%) all contributed to the rise in the index's performance by a total of 105 points. In terms of stocks, Al-Rajhi Bank had the largest share in raising the performance of the index by 49 points (+2.9%), followed by the National Bank by 21 points (+2.7%) and Aramco by 16 points (+0.9%). Trading activity witnessed a decrease in the volume of shares by -13% to reach 186 million shares, and an increase in value by +6% to reach 5.1 billion riyals compared to the previous closing. TASI is likely to continue its current trajectory with result season and recovery in oil prices supporting the index momentum.
The global equity markets moved higher on Friday with earnings seasons and expectation of less hawkish central banks driving the markets. In the U.S, the benchmark S&P 500 Index pared its intraday losses to gain 0.4% at session end. The markets faced clear headwinds as senior managers from big banks in the U.S issued a rather cautious post-result future guidance. However, inflation expectation data provided a lift to major sectors, including financials. 8 out of 11 major industrial groups ended the session in positive.
In Europe, the market celebrated a surprise positive GDP data in the U.K, showing economic activity in Nov-22 managed to record growth, defying expectations of economic contraction. Further lift to stocks was provided by inflation data in the U.S. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index closed with 0.5% gains. FTSE jumped 0.6% to come close to its all-time high. Other country level indices too recorded healthy return.
In Asia, markets responded to better results in tech, dollar weakness and CPI data in the U.S. Barring indices in Japan (TOPIX: -0.3%, on Yen appreciation), all other major Asian markets closed higher by 0.5-1%. Benchmark Indices in Hong Kong (Hang Seng: +1%), China (Shanghai Composite: +1%) and Korea (KOSPI: +0.9%) were the major gainers in the region.