Tadawul Review:

Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) ended the first session after the founding day holiday, slightly lower amid increased volatility, losing 34 points to close at 12,528 levels. The market underwent wild swings trading between a range of 121 points. The majority of the sectors closed down while only 8 sectors were up. Banks recorded the highest decline of -1.6% led by Al-Rajhi bank. The energy sector managed to limit the index losses as it was up 2.9% led by ARAMCO which recorded its highest price since its IPO. Trading volumes and values declined by -14% and -10% to reach 255mn shares and SAR 10.4bn but remained at favorable levels. The market is consolidating at current levels, as investors await clarity on the pertaining geopolitical issues

Market Wrap International:

On Wednesday, US markets fell and Treasury yields increased as international tensions remained high, with President Biden extending sanctions against Russia that includes increased penalties against the company that built the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany, as well as its top executives. Reports of cyberattacks on various Ukrainian government and bank websites impacted heavily on public opinion. A broad based decline was witnessed in the US equities with S&P500 falling by 1.8%, driven mainly by technology and consumer discretionary. Dow Jones and NASDAQ also posted declines of -1.4/-2.6% respectively.

The crisis in Ukraine and growing energy prices, which are perceived as hurting the inflation forecast, impacted the European shares, adding to the case for the ECB to hike rates despite a less-forgiving economic and geopolitical background. In other news, German consumer confidence fell more than predicted in March, from -6.7 to -8.1, missing expectations of a minor increase to -6.3. As a result, the pan European Stoxx 600 index inched down -0.3% along with DAX (-0.4%) and CAC (-0.1%).

In Asia, most indices recovered, post a selloff driven by mounting tensions between Russia-Ukraine.  In China, SHCOMP ended the session higher (+0.9%) led by tech and energy stocks as well as news flow that China plans bigger tax cuts in 2022 to boost the economy. Similarly, in Hong Kong, the tech giant Meituan and HSBC propped the index higher by +0.6%. In South Korea, KOSPI managed to add gains in the last trading hours and closed +0.5%. In Japan, Nikkei 225 was shut for a holiday while Sensex closed down 0.1%.