Tadawul Review:
Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) ended the last day of May negatively on Wednesday’s session by -126points (-1.1%) to close at 11,014 levels, the lowest levels since April 16 (29 sessions), capping the monthly losses at -294 points (MoM: -2.6%, YTD: +5.1%). TASI had opened the session negatively by -20 points from the previous close and continued to decline to breach 11,000 levels to reach its intraday low in the middle of the session, down by 153 points. However, TASI recovered at the end of the session to close above 11,000 levels. In general, 14 out of 20 sectors closed in the red zone, while 154 stocks fell and 59 rose. Banks (-1.4%), Materials (-1.5%), and Energy (-1.1%) sectors contributed the most to the index's -87 point fall. Stockwise, Aramco (-1.1%), Al Rajhi Bank (-1.3%), and Saudi British Bank (-4.0%) were the major contributors. Due to the MSCI quarterly review, trading activity witnessed a significant increase in volume and value of 126% and 139%, respectively, to reach 342mn shares and SAR11.8bn.
The global equity market underwent downside volatility on Wednesday amid growing concerns on global economic growth and fears of further rate hikes by the central banks. The latest economic data and China have added to investors’ worries. The gloom in the energy market further deepened as oil prices dropped by further 1% on Wednesday following 5% drop in the previous session. In the U.S, the key indices lacked the push from AI-based rally in tech names on Wednesday. The drop in energy , mineral and similar sectors dragged the S&P 500 Index down by 0.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was also down by 0.6%. The sovereign yield in the U.S softened by 1-1bps.
In Europe, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 struggled to recoup losses suffered in the initial part of the session and closed with a 1.1% drop. The weak economic data in China and inflation worries weighed on the market performance. The country level indices dropped by 1.5-0.1%.
In Asia, the PMI data in China showed contraction for the second straight month, suggesting the rocky path to economic recovery post lifting COVID-19 restrictions late last year. Shanghai Composite (-0.6%) and Hang Seng (-1.9%) in China suffered losses. In Japan, the comments from Bank of Japan’s Governors on stickiness of high inflation numbers rocked the stock indices with Topix losing over 1.3% for the day. Other indices in the region were down by 0.3-1.4%.