* Ahmed Al-Rasheed from Riyadh
Saudi stocks touched the highest level in three years yesterday, but did not hold and closed below 8000 points.
It was able to reach 8023 points, but failed to close after the selling pressure, which lost the market most of the gains came at 7975 points with gains of seven points. Dar Al Arkan and SABIC declined to press the index's profitability. The closing came below the resistance 7985 points.
The continuation of this performance will expose the market to a profit-taking wave, so it is important to return and close over 8,000 points in order to maintain market gains over the past five sessions and complete the series of gains.
The levels are 8020 resistance points in today's session, while the support was at 7900 points.
Overall market performance
The general index opened at 7968 points. The highest point of the session was at 8023 points, gaining 0.69 percent. At the end of the session, the market closed at 7,775 points, winning seven points.
Liquidity rose 6 percent to reach SAR 4.9 billion by about SR 282 million, SAR 38.7 million per deals. While traded shares increased 5 percent by about 10 million traded shares, reaching 215 million shares traded. The turnover rate was 0.41 percent. Deals rose 9 percent to about 127,000.
Sector performance
Seven sectors rose against the decline of the rest.
The rise was led by "Telecommunications" that rose 1.1%, "Utilities" of 0.85%, and "Food Production" of 0.58%. While the decline was led by "medicines" that rose 1.3%, followed by "long-term goods" of 1.1%, and "transport" of 1.1%.
The highest turnovers were "Basic Materials" of 30 percent at a value of 1.5 billion, followed by "Banks" of 24 percent at a value of 1.2 billion, and "Real Estate Management and Development" of 18 percent at a value of 899 million.
Stock performance
The rise was led by "Acig" that rose 3.9 percent to close at SAR 20.38, "Petrochem" of 3.7 percent to close at SAR 26.99, and "DUR" of 3.57 percent to close at SAR 21.74.
On the other hand, the decline was led by "Arabian Cement" that was down 5.2 percent to close at SAR 31.95, followed by "Dar Al-Arkan" of 4.7 percent to close at SAR 12.16, and "Al-Sorayai Group" of 4 percent to close at SAR 14.86.
The highest turnovers were "Dar Al-Arkan" with a value of SAR 778 million (16 percent), followed by "SABIC" with a value of SAR 652 million (13 percent) and "Alinma" with a value of 625 million (13 percent.)
* Economic Reports Unit
