Tadawul Review:
Tadawul AllShare Index (TASI) fell for the second day by -112 points to close at 10,949 levels. TASI opened the session on a positive note of 27 points but started to decline gradually during the session until the end. In general, 17 out of 20 sectors closed in the red zone, while 142 of 223 shares fell and 59 rose. Banks (-1.3%), Materials (-1.0%), and Food and beverages (-1.6%) sectors contributed the most to the index fall. Stockwise, Al Rajhi Bank (-1.5%), Aramco (-0.6%), and Alinma Bank (-2.9%) were the major contributors. The trading activity witnessed a decrease in volume by -9% to reach 166 million shares and value by -5% to reach SAR 5.0 billion in value traded.
In the U.S., investors are still assimilating to the Federal Reserve's decision to maintain interest rates while revising the expected duration of its restrictive monetary policy based on updated quarterly projections. The S&P 500 dropped at the end of a jittery week by 0.2%, with nine out of eleven listed sectors dropping, while the Nasdaq Composite closed negatively by -0.1%. The U.S. Treasury yields pulled back from their highest levels in 16 years as investors shifted their attention away from the Federal Reserve's hawkish guidance to the upcoming significant economic data.
In Europe, the stock market ended the day with a decline, experiencing significant weekly losses. Investors turned risk-averse after major central banks across the world hinted at keeping borrowing costs high for longer than expected. The Stoxx Europe 600 closed on a negative note by -0.3%, and the FTSE 100 index closed up by +0.07%. The country-level indices closed within a range of –0.4% to -0.09%.
In Asia, the upcoming news briefing by BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda has become the center of attention, with both Japanese markets and global investors feeling unsure about when the Bank of Japan will take action. In Chinese indices, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite closed positively by +2.3% and +1.5%, respectively. The Japanese benchmarks TOPIX and NIKKEI 225 were also down by -0.3% and -0.5%, respectively. The other major indices were negative within a range of -0.3 to +0.2.