Saudi stock market best performer in GCC: KAMCO

The Saudi stock market surged for the second consecutive month in January 2019 and recorded the best monthly performance in the GCC with gains of 9.4 percent, KAMCO Research noted in its latest GCC markets monthly report.

The gains were broad-based with a majority of the sectors closing the month in the green. The Food & Beverage Index topped monthly index performance with gains of 13.8 percent primarily backed by 26.5 percent gain in shares of Savola Group and 12.5 percent gain in shares of Almarai that more than offset decline in a majority of the stocks in the sector, the report added.

Utilities and Banks indices were next on the list with gains of 13.8 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively, while the Telecom index recorded a gain of 9.5 percent.

“Gains for the Banking index came after shares of all the banks in the market were in the green during the month with a majority of them recording double digit gains,” KAMCO research added.

Trading activity saw modest gains after two consecutive months of decline with gains recorded in both volume and value of shares traded on the exchange. Monthly volume of shares gained 13 percent to reach 2.9 billion shares in January as compared to 2.6 billion shares in the previous month, the research noted.

Total value traded on the exchange also increased at a slightly higher rate of 13.4 percent to reach SAR 68.2 billion as compared to SAR 60.1 billion during the previous month. The monthly volume chart was topped by Dar Al-Arkan with 245.4 million traded shares during the month followed by Alinma Bank and Saudi Kayan with 194.1 million and 191.8 million shares, respectively, it added.