Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed Wednesday's session ‎with an increase for the fifth consecutive session, achieving ‎‎+14 points (+0.1%) to close at 10,809 levels, which is the ‎highest closing level since the beginning of the year. TASI ‎opened the session with no major move but it faced selling ‎pressure in the first hour of trading, reaching its intraday low ‎by 60 points. Then TASI started to build its positive ‎momentum gradually until it reached its intraday high, rising ‎by +27 points, before settling marginally lower. In general, 13 ‎sectors out of 20 closed in the green zone, while 117 stocks ‎rose and 83 fell. Materials (+0.5%), Health care equipment ‎and services (+1.8%), and Insurance (+1.4%) sectors led the ‎index gains, while Energy (-0.3%), Telecom (-0.1%), and Food ‎and beverages (-0.1%) were the major drags on the index. ‎Among stocks, SABIC (+1.7%), Al Rajhi Bank (+0.4%), and ‎Sulaiman Al Habib (+3%) contributed most to the rise of the ‎index. The trading activity witnessed an increase in volume ‎and value by 25% and 15%, respectively, to reach 144mn ‎shares and SAR4.1bn. More of the same is expected from ‎TASI in near-term before the earnings season gets into full ‎swing.‎

 

 

 

Market Wrap International:

The global equity markets were mixed on Wednesday with ‎divergent themes at play. The Dec-end result season has ‎proved to be non-event in terms of surprises though the future ‎guidance is more broadly downbeat. In the U.S, the tech ‎names were in focus, particularly by Microsoft and Tesla. ‎Overall, investors drew not-so-encouraging takeaways from ‎the results and management guidance. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ‎Composite and S&P 500 Index were down -0.2% and -0.02% ‎on Wednesday. ‎

In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index closed down for the ‎second straight session and dropped by -0.3%. No major ‎surprise in results so far along with recent strong performance ‎of the index have made the invesros cautious ahead of ‎another important monetary policy decision ahead. The ‎country level indices too moved in tandem with the regional ‎benchmark. ‎

 

In Asia, markets were generally positive for the fourth straight ‎session. Trading in China and Hong Kong remained suspended ‎for the New Year holidays. Korea resumed trading after a gap ‎of three days and was up 1.4% at session close. A strong ‎inflation print in Australia was a major focus in the region. ‎Indices in Japan moved higher by 0.4% while SENSEX in India ‎closed in red (-1.3%) amid a new report by Hindenburg ‎Research, claiming widespread accounting malpractices among ‎companies run by Adani Group. ‎