18/04/2011
TASI index ending on a month low, Kuwait benchmarks slip
Saudi Arabia's TASI index ended on a month low as investors booked profits
from petrochemicals, with Yanbu National Petrochemical Company weighing.
The petrochemical index lost 1.8 percent, as Yansab shed 5 percent. SABIC lost
2.3 percent ahead of first-quarter earnings. Both stocks fell on rumors
spurred by SABIC result's leakage, analysts said.
The benchmark ended 1.1 percent lower, its lowest close since March 29.
Kuwait's benchmark fell after the death of the Kharafi Group's
chairman.Kuwait's benchmark fell 0.7 percent to a week low and Zain dropped
3.3 percent, after Nasser Al-Kharafi, 67, the billionaire chairman of Kuwait's
Kharafi Group, died in Cairo from a heart attack.
The Kharafi Group was a major shareholder in Kuwaiti telecoms carrier Zain
and was also the main proponent of a failed $12 billion stake sale in the firm
to UAE's Etisalat.
