Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) lost 234 points (1.8%) on Monday to close at 12,915 levels. The market surged upwards in the first 15 mins of trading before undergoing a gradual downward spiral. Overall, 16 of 20 sectors closed down while the advance to decline ratio was a meager 0.16x. The decline in the stock market was led by the Banking sector (-2.9%) which contributed 144 points to the index decline followed by Materials (2.4%) and Telecom (-1.6%) negative contribution of 47, 9 points.  Al Rajhi bank (-3.7%), Saudi National Bank (-4.5%), and SABIC (-2.4%) had the most impact in pulling down the index while SIECO, being an exception, closed up 9.9%. Trading volumes and value rose by 23% and 33% to 175mn shares and SAR9.1bn. Investors will be looking to take positions in stable stocks while disposing of risky assets as the market continues to exhibit huge swings daily.

 

 

Market Wrap International:

On Monday, U.S. stocks were mainly down as investors weighed disappointing data from China and awaited significant data from the Eurozone, the United States, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's address. Technology -0.9% and consumer discretionary -2.1% dragged on the S&P500, while energy +2.6% excelled. The Dow Jones rose +0.1%, but the Nasdaq Composite fell -1.2%, pulled down by a decrease in mega-cap stocks including TSLA, which fell -5.9%, AAPL, which fell -1.1%, AMZN, which fell -2%, and GOOGL, which fell -1.5%. Surprisingly, the volatility index VIX has fallen from 34.75 to 27.47 in the last five sessions, but the S&P500 has stayed sluggish.

Following the lower Chinese data, European markets ended the day neutral, with the Euro Stoxx 600 erasing initial losses of up to -0.8%. The FTSE100 increased by +0.6%, while the DAX and CAC fell by -0.2% and -0.4% respectively. In a note, JP Morgan analysts argue that European stocks have a chance to rebound from here because "peak Fed hawkishness is starting to gain pace" and inflation is turning downward for the first time in a long time, implying that the Fed is no longer considerably behind the curve.

Asian markets were trading higher Monday morning before the release of China’s economic data showed a slowdown in economic activity in April. The Chinese stock market, SH Composite, recorded a loss of -0.34% on poor economic data despite Beijing’s moves to cut mortgage rates and ease lockdowns in Shanghai. In Hong Kong, Hang Seng managed to post gains of +0.3% while in Japan, Nikkei 225 was up by +0.45%. In Korea, KOSPI declined by -0.3% while SENSEX, in India, rose by -0.3%.