Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All-Shere index (TASI) closed on Wednesday with a ‎slight decrease of 17 points compared to the previous close ‎‎(0.2%), to close at the level of 10,617. The index saw a ‎similar pattern of trading in a narrow range of 74 points. In ‎general, 11 sectors closed in the green area out of 20 sectors. ‎While the ratio of advance to decline came in at 1:1.3. The ‎banking sectors (-0.8%) and the telecommunications and ‎insurance sectors (-1.2%) contributed the most to the decline ‎in the index, as they accounted for -37 points in the decline ‎in the index. In terms of stocks, the shares of banks were the ‎biggest burden in the decline of the index, as Al-Ahly Bank (-‎‎1.2%), Banque Saudi Fransi (-2.1%) and Al-Rajhi Bank (-0.3%). ‎Trading activity witnessed an increase in the volume and ‎value of trading by +48% and +7% respectively, to reach 214 ‎million shares and 4.8 billion riyals. TASI is unlikely to break ‎through its current pattern of moving in a band through the ‎session. Since making its recent low of 10,033 on 12th Dec-22, ‎the index has managed to record positive closings in 11 ‎sessions, negative closings in 6 and broadly unchanged (<10pt ‎movement) in 5 sessions. ‎

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Market Wrap International:

The global equity markets edged higher on Wednesday with ‎investors batting on a soft CPI reading for the U.S economy ‎tomorrow. Latest market surveys on inflation expectation ‎optimism and excitement over the upcoming Dec-end result ‎season kept investors positive. In the U.S, the benchmark S&P ‎‎500 and Nasdaq Composite extended the rally and jumped ‎‎1.3% and 1.8% on Wednesday. All sectors at S&P 500 closed ‎higher. The fall in treasury yields ahead of data release also ‎provided comfort to investors. ‎

In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index recouped its ‎yesterday’s losses and closed higher by 0.4% at session close. ‎The country level indices also exhibited similar performance ‎and were up 0.4-1.2%. The drop in energy prices and latest ‎inflation reading in major economies suggest normalization in ‎the inflation trend.‎

Asian benchmarks moved in divergent directions. Indices in ‎Japan (TOPIX: +1.1%, Nikkei225: +1%) were the major ‎outperformers in the region along with HangSeng (0.5%) and ‎KOPSI (+0.3%). Indices in China (Shanghai Composite: -0.2%), ‎Taiwan (TAIEX: -0.3%) and India (SENSEX: no change) closed ‎lower on Wednesday. ‎