RIYADH (AFP) — The Saudi stock market, the largest in the Arab world, on Saturday opened the week's trading down seven percent, diving below the 6,000-point mark.
The Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI) shed more than 450 points in the first minute before recovering some of its losses. It was later trading at around 5,873.66 points, down 4.7 percent.
The market's 15 sectors and 124 firms whose stocks were being traded all suffered declines, led by the petrochemicals sector which dropped 7.8 percent.
The Saudi market is the only Gulf financial market that opens on Saturday.
The new decline came despite statements by Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) on Thursday that it was ready to inject more than 93 billion dollars into the kindgom's banking system. The banks index dropped by 5.8 percent.
TASI suffered turbulence last week when it shed 17.4 percent in just three days of trading. The week was cut short by a religious holiday.
The Saudi stock market is the largest in the Middle East with a capitalisation of around 320 billion dollars, down from about 450 billion dollars at the end of last year.
The TASI is currently down 47 percent from the 2007 close.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
