Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) ended Thursday's session down -25 points (-0.2%) to close at 10,548 levels. TASI began the trading session on a muted note, but soon it rose in the first hours of trading as it reached its intraday high at 17 points. TASI then began to decline for the rest of the session and closed at its intraday low. In general, 12 out of 20 sectors closed in the red zone, while 89 stocks rose and 122 fell. Banks (-0.2%), Energy (-0.4%), and Telecom (-0.6%) sectors were the major drags on the index and contributed a total of -13 points. Stocks-wise, Al Rajhi Bank (-0.7%), Aramco (-0.5%), and Maaden (-2.4%) pulled the index down the most. The trading volume activity increased by 5% DoD to reach 166mn shares, while the trading value declined by 3% DoD to reach SAR4bn. The index is expected to move sideways in coming sessions.
The global equity indices continued erasing the YTD gains amid cautiousness over the interest rate outlook and geopolitical tension between the U.S and China. The hawkish comment from the Fed official were the major drag to the market. In the U.S, the S&P 500 Index managed to pare intraday losses of 1% to 0.3% at session close. The drop in yields in the treasuries provided the push to market to recover ground. Energy and tech dropped the most. The Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.6%.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index underwent a similar trend of recovering from session lows (-1.2%) to close with modest losses (-0.2%). Country level indices too recorded minor losses (-0.0.3%). Energy and tech names were the major drags.
In Asia, markets digested the hawkish comments from the Fed officials a day before and recorded a relatively bigger decline at session close. The tech-heavy indices were particularly under stress. The key indices were down 0.5-1.3%. HangSeng and KOPSI were the two major underperformers in the region.