Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) closed with a gain of 170 points (+1.4%) at 12,590 levels, marking a fresh-all time highlevels since 2006. The gains on Monday, however, came amid volatility as negative sentiment on week closing of oil prices saw the index dropped by -74 points in initial hours of trading. This followed by a quickly reversal on the back of a strong recovery in oil prices. The majority of sectors gained with Banks rising by +2%, Materials and Energy by +1.7% and +1.4% respectively. Media and Entertainment’s stock price fell by -2.3%. Trading volumes and values increased by +13% and +19% respectively to reach 265mn shares and 12bn Riyals as today MSCI Tadawul 30 index (MT30) was rebalanced.  Investors are likely to remain tentative in coming sessions with geopolitics, commodity prices and central banks’ actions in the focus for the remaining part of the week.

 

 

Market Wrap International:

Following more restrictions on the Russian banking system over the weekend, investors sought the protection of Treasury’s. U.S. shares fell on Monday, though they pared greater losses. Volatility increased, and investors sought the shelter of Treasury’s. The S&P500 was down -0.2%. Energy sector was positive as oil and gas prices remain high due to the Ukraine conflict. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell -0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite was up +0.4%. In economic news, wholesale inventories fell to +0.8 percent in January, missing expectations of +1.3 percent, while the advance goods trade balance fell to -$107 billion, down from -$101 billion earlier. Traders have reduced their forecasts for Fed rate hikes, with Fed fund futures now pricing +5.5 rate hikes in 2022, down from slightly more than 6.

European markets fell sharply after the Western Allies ramped up efforts to impose new sanctions on Russia including cutting some of the banks of the SWIFT financial network. Euro Stoxx 50 ended the week’s first session (-1.2%) lower amid increased tension with Russia. In Germany, DAX slipped by -0.7% erasing most of the gains recorded in the previous session. FTSE 100 and CAC40 slumped by -0.4% and -1.4% respectively

Asian markets, broadly speaking, ended the first week’s session slightly higher as the conflict between Russia-Ukraine uplifted commodity prices, rallying energy & metal stocks. In China, for the second consecutive session SHCOMP rose, increasing by +0.3% after falling by nearly -0.7% in the morning, boosted by Energy firms. Similarly, in India, energy and metals stocks gained, lifting Sensex by 0.7%. In Japan, Nikkei225 underwent a volatile session but managed to end in the green zone, rising +0.2% while in South Korea KOSPI advanced by +0.8% respectively. Worsening COVID-19 cases in Hong Kong put pressure on the Hang Seng which slipped by -0.2%.