Tadawul Review:
Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) rose for the fifth day on Thursday’s session, up by +38 points (+0.4%) to close at 10,853 levels. TASI opened on a positive note with 14 points and continued to increase, reaching its intraday high of 175 points in the first trading hour before gradually declining until the end. Overall, 16 out of 20 sectors closed in the green zone, while 155 shares rose and 61 fell. Materials (+1.7%), Banks (+0.6%), and Insurance (+2.3%) sectors contributed the most to the index rise. Stockwise, Saudi National Bank (+2.9%), Sabic (+3.4%), and Alinma Bank (+2.8%) were the major contributors. The trading activity witnessed a decline in volume and value of -20% and -18%, respectively, to reach 219mn shares and SAR6.9bn in value traded.
In the U.S. markets, the indexes experienced a surge on Friday (the S&P 500: +0.9% and Nasdaq Composite;1.4%) as bond yields plummeted following the release of data indicating a slowdown in U.S. job growth and an increase in unemployment rates. This has generated optimism among investors, who now have renewed hopes that the Federal Reserve has concluded its campaign of raising interest rates. However, the dollar fell to a six-week low on Friday.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 was up by +0.2%, with the real estate subgroup leading the way in terms of gains,putting it on track for its best weekly performance ever, helped by easing bond yields. In the UK, the FTSE-100 index closed down by -0.4%. The country-level indices closed in a range of -0.2% to +0.3%.
In Asia, stocks advanced with growing optimism as Beijing's economic and equity market initiatives are expected to revive Chinese stocks, which have underperformed globally this year. The indices in China rose by (Shanghai Composite: +0.7 %, Hang Seng: +2.5%).The benchmarks in Japan were closed on Friday as the yen strengthened 0.72% versus the greenback at 149.31 per dollar, while the other country indices moved in a range of +0.7% to +1.1%.