Business | Markets
Value of Saudi shares falls nearly 40%
The kingdom's total value of shares traded at the end of the first half of this year dropped by 39.38 per cent to 780.05 billion Saudi riyals (Dh764 billion) against 1.087 trillion riyals during the same period last year, according to the Tadawul Statistical Report released on Saturday.
- By Abdul Rahman Shaheen, Correspondent
- Published: 22:54 July 5, 2009
Riyadh: The kingdom's total value of shares traded at the end of the first half of this year dropped by 39.38 per cent to 780.05 billion Saudi riyals (Dh764 billion) against 1.087 trillion riyals during the same period last year, according to the Tadawul Statistical Report released on Saturday.
Meanwhile, total equity market capitalisation fell by 39.38 per cent to 1.07 trillion riyals in the same period compared to the previous year, the report showed.
The total number of traded shares rose 11.90 per cent to 38.07 billion in the first half of 2009 compared to 34.02 billion in the same period last year.
The total number of transactions declined by 27.59 per cent to 22.63 million against 31.25 million in the first half of the previous year.
At the end of the first half of 2009, the Tadawul All Share Index (Tasi) closed at 5,596.46, losing 3,755.86 points or 40.16 per cent over the close of the same period of the previous year.
On a year-to-date basis Tasi registered a positive return of 793.47 points or 16.52 per cent.
Speaking to Gulf News, a number of market experts noted that speculators will be away from playing an active role in creating fluctuations in the market over the coming weeks. "This is because of the fact that most of them are going abroad to spend their summer vacation. This will boost the capital market for a recovery," they said.
Referring to reports that speculators are trying to freeze about 7 billion riyals during the summer season, prominent financial expert Dr Naif Al Asmari, who is also professor of accountancy at Al Baha University, said that speculators have been withdrawing money from the market for two weeks.
"The liquidity reached 11 billion riyals in the market this year," he said, while expecting that the daily average liquidity in the capital market in the near future would range between four billion and five billion riyals.
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