(CCFI) – The NCFEI index at 2154.56 represents 7-year high and is at striking distance to the all-time high of 2338 (29/07/1992). The healthier corporate results from the industrial and banking sector boosted the Saudi Market this week. The CCFI Index, which opened this week at 161.08, moved up continuously to touch a high of 165.56 before closing marginally lower at 165.12. The week belonged to banking as all the banking stocks looked up. The CCFI sector indices reflected a mixed trend with Banking, Industrial and Services sectors moving up and Cement, Electricity and Agricultural sectors moving down. The stock -wise activity was mixed with 28 stocks moving up and 26 moving down. This week witnessed a huge increase in the number of trades compared to last week. 13213 trades were executed for the week compared to 9661 last week. Industrial sector continued to lead with 4596 trades and the Banking followed with 3115 trades.
On the Volume front, Industrial sector again led with nearly 41 percent of the total market volume, but on the turnover Banking sector led with nearly 46.3 percent of the total turnover. Overall market volume moved up by 17 percent. SABIC, the market leader, which announced excellent results (net income up 433 percent), led the market to greater heights. With the economy expected to do well and the corporate sector announcing better quarterly results, the market seems to move into a bullish zone.
The oil market cooled down with the OPEC members giving signals of possible production increase based on the agreed band, if the prices remained above $28 per barrel. The price as on Friday was around $26.89 per barrel.
TEN MOST ACTIVE SHARES
SABIC led the list of stocks that attracted most of the market activity. SABIC attracted around 1.8 million shares in 1779 trade, which approximates to 19 percent of the market volume. SCECO central attracted the most of the retail activity with 2836 trades generating nearly 5 percent of the market volume. SAFCO, which turned around in the last quarter of 1999, reported improved results with net income growing by 25 percent in the second quarter compared to the previous quarter. NIC, which reported a drop of 36 percent in the results for the quarter ending 30th June, closed lower by 2.3 percent. The top 10 active stocks continued to dominate the market with nearly 71 percent of the market volume generated out of these stocks. Livestock with 11 percent of market volume and Riyad Bank with 9 percent of market volume were other stocks that were active this week.
GAINERS & LOSERS
This week witnessed 4 stocks showing a price variation of more than 5 percent. Makkah made a gain of 8.45 percent and SABIC made a gain of 6.21 percent. National Gypsum, which made a gain of 6.46 percent last week, dropped by 9.41 percent. Fitaihi continued to drop this week with a fall of nearly 6 percent.
