* Ahmed Al-Rasheed from Riyadh
Saudi shares ended the first half of this year at 8314 points, up 1088 points since the beginning of the year by 15 per cent. So, the market value rose about 293 billion to reach 1.98 trillion riyals.
The market rose 888 points, up 12 percent from the first half of the previous year.
The market fell in two months and rose in the rest, the best two months were January and March at 6 percent. While in February, it fell by 3 per cent.
Liquidity reached 475 billion riyals, up 9 percent from the same period last year.
Traded shares were amounted to 21 billion shares against 23 billion shares, down 8 percent. Deals reached 12 million transactions versus 11 million transactions with a 12 per cent growth.
In terms of sector performance, 12 sectors rose against the rest of the sector. The rise was led by "the media sector" with 55%, followed by "Banks" with 28% and "Telecommunications" with 27%.
The decline was led by "real estate management and development" of 21 per cent, followed by "real estate trusts" of 15 per cent, and "insurance" of 9 per cent.
The main turnovers were "Basic Materials" of 30 per cent with the value of trading at SAR142 billion, followed by "Banks" of 24 percent with a value of SR144 billion, and "Real Estate Management and Development" of 15 per cent with a value of 74 billions.
The "real estate management and development" sector was the highest in traded shares at 27 per cent, with 5.8 billion traded shares. Though, the most traded transactions in the basic materials sector were 23 per cent, with 2.8 million transactions.
In terms of stock performance, the rise was led be "Petro Rabigh" that rose 72 per cent to close at SAR 28.35, followed by "SRMG" of 66 per cent and "PETROCHEM" of 61 per cent to close at SAR 18.53
On the other hand, the decline was led by "Atheeb" of 45 per cent to close at 5.35 riyals, followed by "Wafa Insurance" by 45 per cent to close at 14.10 riyals and thirdly by "Enaya" by 35 per cent to close at SAR 23.96.
On the leading stocks "the top 20 companies", five stocks fell, while the rest rose.
"Jabal Omar" was the main loser by 31 per cent, while the highest was "Saudi Kayan" by 48 per cent.
"SABIC" was the most heavily traded issue with SAR 67 billion at 14 per cent, followed by "Dar Al-Arkan" by 12 per cent with a value of SAR60 billion and "Alinma" by 12 per cent with a value of SAR 57 billion.
On the other hand, the parallel market "Numo" ended the first half at 3016 points, down 124 points by 4 percent, while it fell by 20 percent compared to the same period last year.
According to Tadawul, the market value of shares issued at the end of the first half rose by 2.4 billion riyals, a growth of 3 percent over the previous year.
Trading values in the first half were SAR 231 million, down 84 per cent from the same period last year.
Traded shares reached 11 million shares, down 80 per cent, and transactions fell 54 per cent to reach 23 thousand transactions.
* Economic Reports Unit
