* Ahmed Al-Rasheed from Riyadh
Saudi shares fell 23 points, 0.29 percent, to close at 8224.
The decline came under pressure from the basic materials sector led by "Tasnee."
The market witnessed a trading activity for buyers, where the highest gain was 0.37%, but selling pressure has lost the market gains.
Current levels-up to 8450 points- are area where the selling forces will not be overcome by the market only, but with financial results above expectations to enhance the flow of liquidity to them.
High profitability and technical indicators are making the current levels difficult for a market that has started to trend sideways, trading in one range since six sessions.
During the last period, qualified and foreign investors were generally active in buying, while buying interest declined last week compared to the previous week. Their sales last week sold 180 million riyals compared to 1.4 billion riyals in the previous week. This shows that foreigners are not interested in the market at current prices until the end of last week.
Overall market performance
The general index opened at 8,248 points, trading between high and low. The highest point was at 8279 points, 0.38 per cent, while the lowest point was at 8222 points, losing 0.32 percent.
At the end of the session, the general index closed at 8224 points, losing 23 points, 0.29 percent.
Liquidity rose 94 million riyals by 2 percent to reach 4.8 million riyals, at a rate of 36,000 riyals per transaction.
While traded shares increased 1% by about 1.6 million traded shares to reach 206 million shares traded at a rate of 0.4%.
Transactions rose 2 percent to reach nearly 133,000 transactions.
Sectors performance
Nine sectors rose against the rest. The rise was led by "Business and professional services" that rose by 1.9 percent, followed by "utilities" by 1.5 percent and "communications" by 1 per cent. While the decline was led by "food fragmentation" by 2%, followed by "energy" by 1.99%, and "media" by 1.37%.
The highest turnovers were "Basic Materials" by 29% with a value of SR 1.4 billion, followed by "Banks" by 19% with a value of SR 924 million and "Real Estate Management and Development" by 13% with a value of SR 634 million.
Stock performance
The rise was led by "Ceramics" for the maximum closing at 23.46 riyals, followed by "Tihama" by 9.79 percent to close at 52.80 riyals, and then "Etihad Etisalat" of 7.66 per cent to close at 17.56 riyals.
On the other hand, the decline was led by "Sipchem International" of 5.3 percent to close at 21.82 riyals, followed by "Petro Rabigh" of 3.22 percent to close at 29.12 riyals, and then "Tasnee" of 3 percent to close at 20.73 riyals.
"SABIC" had the highest turnover of SR 669 million, followed by "Alinma" by 12 per cent with a value of SAR 601 million and "Dar Al-Arkan" by 9 per cent that valued at SAR 421 million.
* Economic Reports Unit
