Saudi stocks ended the week of Thursday, November 1 down 0.8 percent as oil fell again and the major drop in profits by market leader Saudi Basic Industries Co. (SABIC) continued to undermine the market. Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA) said the NCFEI all-shares index closed at 2,366.04 from 2,384.83 points from last week's.
The index is now 4.8 percent higher than at the start of the year. "The market was relatively stable this week despite the internal negative influence of SABIC, which continued to decline," BFA said.
The nine-month net profit of SABIC, which makes up 19 percent of the market capitalization, dropped 37 percent over the same period of 2000. Its third quarter profits, reported last week, also dropped 52 percent over the second quarter.
"Oil prices were subject to a new fall during the last two days driven by the global and American recession, as well as the US government declarations about an excess in US crude stocks," the market specialists said.
Stock prices of 13 companies rose, 41 fell, five remained unchanged and 17 issues did not trade. Blue chip gainers were led by Saudi American Bank and Riyadh Bank, up 1.2 percent and 0.5 percent respectively.
The major losers were SABIC and the Saudi British Bank, both down 2.7 percent. The NCFEI is the most capitalized market in the Arab world at more than $70 billion, but operates only as an interbank market system. — (AFP, Riyadh)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
