The Saudi stock market continued its deteriorating performance for the fourth consecutive week, amid pre-emptive selling of blue chip stocks before they announce their financial results for Q1 2009, which is led by investors' current fears surrounding the upcoming corporate results. However, the official monthly statistics of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency - SAMA showed that banks' accumulative profits witnessed an increase in Jan. 2009 compared to its results in Jan. and Dec. 2008. This enhancement might be due to the expanding spread between interest rates on the outstanding loans and those paid on deposits in the time being, furthermore, prices of petrochemicals have been performing positive YTD performance where many products rebounded amid varying rise; for example, the price of ethylene and urea recorded a YTD increase of 27% and 52% respectively. This increase can be seen as a positive indication for the coming profits of the petrochemical industry in Q1 2009.
On the other hand, small cap stocks continued its negative performance this week as a result of profit taking trades, especially in the insurance sector and number of stocks in the agriculture sector where the Tadawul insurance sector index decreased by 9% this week.
On the Oil front, prices were up this week due to investors' concern about a further production cut by OPEC members in their next meeting. The WTI closed on Tuesday March 10 at USD 45.7 up by USD 4.1 or 9.9% against last week. "TASI" registered 4130.15 points on Wednesday March 11 close, down by 5.0% from last week. As of today, "TASI" is 14.0% lower than year start and the trading value reached SAR 16.3 Billion, down against last week's SAR 17.1 Billion. "SABIC" dominated trading value at 15% followed by "Alinma" at 6% and "MA'ADEN" at 5%.
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