* Ahmed Al-Rasheed from Riyadh
Saudi shares ended the month higher by 452 points, 6.1 per cent, to close at 7,870 points, the best monthly performance since June 2017. The highest point was 7985 points with 7.6 percent gain, while the lowest point was at 7336 points, lost 1 percent. The market value of Saudi shares rose by about 7 percent to reach SR 1.86 trillion, equivalent to SR 125 billion.
The performance has been positive since the beginning of the year, rising 8.9 percent with capital gains of 180 billion riyals in market value. Liquidity rose 22 billion riyals to reach 87 billion riyals, 34 percent growth rate of 40 thousand riyals per transaction. While traded shares rose 21 percent to 616 million shares to 3.5 billion shares with a turnover of 6.8 percent. Transactions rose 337,000 to 2.1 million, growth of 18 percent.
Four sectors declined against the res. The rise was led by "Food production" that was rising by 12 percent, followed by "basic materials" by 8.5 percent, and "communications" by 7.7 percent. While the decline was led by "commercial and professional services" with 3.5%, followed by "real estate funds traded" with 2.8%, and "health care" by 1.8%.
The highest turnovers were "basic materials" by 30 percent with a value of 26 billion riyals, followed by "banks" of 27 percent with a value of 23 billion riyals, and "management and development of real estate" by 11 percent.
In terms of performance, "Saudi Pipe" was the top gainer by 37 percent to close at 21.90 riyals, followed by "Dar Al-Arkan" by 28 percent to close at 12.54 riyals, and "national Petrochemical" by 24 percent to close at 24.72 riyals. On the other hand, "Malath Insurance" declined 17 percent to close at SAR 14.99, "Wafrah" of 16 percent to close at SAR 16.29, and then "SALAMA" with 15 percent to close at SAR 26.10.
The highest turnovers were "SABIC" with a value of SR 12 billion, "Alinma" with a value of 11 billion, and "Al-Rajhi" with a value of 8.5 billion.
About investors, Saudi investors registered a sell-off during March 2018 with a net sell-off of nearly SAR4 billion, while foreign and GCC investors tended to buy SAR3.6bn for foreigners and SAR324mn for GCC investors.
The market value of Saudi shares at the end of March 2018 amounted to about 1.86 trillion riyals; the proportion of ownership of Saudi investors was about 93.22%, compared to 4.71% for foreigners and 2.06 for the GCC investors in March 2018.
On the other hand, the parallel market "Nomu" in March fell by about 7 percent to lose 206 points and close at 2951 points. Trading value dropped 657 thousand riyals by 2 percent to reach 35 million riyals, while shares traded rose 4 percent by 62 thousand shares to reach 1.6 million shares. The deals fell 32 percent by 1.5 thousand to reach 3.2 thousand deals.
* Economic Reports Unit
