The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) ended 0.9 percent
higher at 6,055.54 points led by petrochemicals and banking shares. It was the
benchmark's biggest gain since July 27. The sector activity for the day was
widely positive with all 15 sectors closing with gains ranging from 0.16
percent by the Insurance sector to 1.67 percent by the Telecommunication &
Information Technology sector. The overall market breadth for the day was
widely positive with 109 advancers against 18 decliners giving it an AD ratio
of 6.05, the Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market
commentary.
The stock market turnover reached SR1.39 billion as
compared to SR1.52 billion on Wednesday.
SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corp.) shares rose 1.5
percent, the most in three weeks, to SR84.50. Al-Rajhi Bank, the Kingdom's
biggest publicly traded lender by market value, gained 0.7 percent, the most
since Aug. 15, to SR76.25. Etihad Etisalat Co., the second-largest mobile-phone
operator, surged 2.4 percent to a one-week high of SR52.50.
State-run Saudi Electricity Co. (SEC) gained 1.10 percent
to SR13.80. Samba bank shares surged 0.43 percent to SR57.75.
Dar Al-Arkan Real Estate Development Co. shares rose by
0.46 percent to SR10.85 as it expects rent income to gradually rise from
near-zero last year to SR1 billion by end-2015.
"We expect a rent income of between SR300 million
and SR350 million in 2011 alone. It will gradually rise to SR1 billion in
annual revenue by end-2015," Saud Al-Gusaiyer, Dar Al-Arkan general manager,
told Reuters on Saturday.
The bulk of the rent revenue will come from Dar
Al-Arkan's Al-Qasr property project in Riyadh, where the firm plans to rent
1,318 housing units, 145,000 square meters (1.6 million sq ft) of commercial
space and 20,000 square meter of office space, Al-Gusaiyer said.
Al-Qasr, built to cater for a population of 20,000, has a
total 3,050 housing units of which 1,732 units were put up for direct sale. Dar
Al-Arkan started selling units at Al-Qasr last year.
"By end-June, 320 housing units remained to be sold.
We hope to sell them all by end the end of this year," Al-Gusaiyer added.
BMG's Saudi Index which comprises the top 30 active
companies based on their market capitalization edged higher by 1.1 percent in
Saturday's session to reach 316.82 points. Al-Alamiya for Cooperative Insurance
Company was the biggest gainer, rising by 7.9 percent to SR26.00 per share. The
highest value traded of SR171 million was registered by Al-Sagr Cooperative
Insurance Company, which was the worst performer, slumping by 8.6 percent to
SR23.30. Alinma Bank was the most actively traded, having had 8.9 million of
its shares traded during the session, with its share price closing unchanged at
SR10.70.
 
- With input from agencies