RIYADH: The Kingdom’s stock market fell for a second consecutive day on Monday, as cautious trading took over, and investors braced for earnings announcements.
At the closing bell, the main index, TASI, edged down by 0.6 percent to 12,068 points, partially shrugging off gains from the past two weeks.
Similarly, the parallel Nomu market slipped 0.6 percent to close at 25,573 points.
This was propelled by losses in the Kingdom’s largest lender, the Saudi National Bank, which fell 2.5 percent amid trading of around 1.8 million shares.
Al Rajhi Bank and Saudi Telecom Co., better known as stc, also weighed on TASI, as their shares dropped 1.3 and 0.7 percent, respectively.
Arabian Centres Co., known as Almrakez, was up 2.2 percent after topping early morning gains.
Almrakez earlier said it will distribute cash dividends at SR0.75 ($0.2) per share for the first half of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021.
A major producer of electrical power in the Kingdom, Saudi Electricity Co., saw a 1.8 percent hike in its share price, followed by utility provider ACWA POWER Co., up 0.6 percent.
Saudi Industrial Export Co. recorded the highest gains, amounting to 2.8 percent, while Nama Chemicals Co. led the losses, down 3.6 percent.
In energy trading, Brent crude oil reached $87.8 per barrel, and US benchmark WTI crude oil neared $85 per barrel as of 3:54 p.m. Saudi time.
