Tadawul Review:
Tadawul AllShare Index (TASI) rose on Wednesday’s session by 159 points (+1.5%) to close at 11,077 levels. TASI opened with a positive note of +4 and continued rising throughout the session to close at its intraday high. Overall, all sectors closed in the green zone, while 175 of 223 shares rose and 37 fell. Banks (+1.1%), Energy (+1.7%), and Telecom (+2.3%) sectors contributed the most to the index’s rise. Stockwise, Aramco (+1.8%), Al Rajhi Bank (+1.6%), and Elm Co. (+10%) were the major contributors. The trading activity witnessed a slight increase in volume by 0.4% to reach 205mn shares, while the value declined by -8% to reach SAR5.8bn in value traded.
In the global markets, stocks were little changed on Wednesday after a sharp sell-off the previous day while the investors reconciled with the prospect of central banks keeping interest rates high for a longer duration to squeeze inflation. The S&P 500 rebounded on Wednesday to close on a slight positive note by 0.02% and Nasdaq Composite by 0.2%. The U.S. bonds dipped after hitting their highest level since 2007. While the U.S. crude oil was 1.14% higher at $91.42 a barrel.
In Europe, the shares fell on Wednesday for five straight sessions of losses (STOXX:-0.1%) ,with indices in Germany and France hovering perilously close to their lowest levels since March. In the UK, the FTSE-100 index close down by-0.4%. The country-level indices closed within a range of -0.3% to -0.03%.
In Asia, stocks rose on Wednesday as concerns about liquidity and a sluggish housing market intensified, leading to a significant decline in Chinese property stocks to their lowest points since October 2011. Hang Seng benchmark and Shanghai Composite closed positively by +0.8% and +0.2%, respectively. The indices in japan erased losses (TOPIX:+0.3|NIKKEI 225 +0.2%) after electronics makers raised stock indexes as the Yen fell for three days against the dollar. The other major indices were positive within a range of +0.1 to +0.3%.