Saturday 6 August 2011

Saudi Stock Market close - August 6, 2011

General Index
Intraday 3 month
Daily Statistics
Date06/08/2011
General Index6073.44
Change (%)-5.46%
Change-350.43
T. Volume184670811
T. Companies 150
Advanced1
Declined144
Unchanged2
UnTraded3

Saudi stock market first to plunge on S&P downgrade - Telegraph

The Tadawul All-Shares Index closed down 350.43 points 6,073.44 as all shares tumbled following a tumultous week for global markets which was capped by Standard & Poor's cutting the US credit rating over its $14.3 trillion deficit and debt.

'The S&P rating and problems in Europe... have scared investors,' said financial analyst Abdulwahab Abu Dahesh.

The Saudi market was the first to react globally to the S&P statement late on Friday, with the start of the trading week in Saudi Arabia, while all other markets remained shut for the weekend.


Saudi Shares Plunge as U.S. Downgrade Fuels Concern Over Global Economy - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabian shares tumbled for a third day, sending the benchmark index to its largest intraday drop since March, amid rising concerns about the global economy after Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S.’s credit rating for the first time.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC), the world’s biggest petrochemicals maker, dropped the most in two months. Al Rajhi Bank (RJHI), the kingdom’s largest publicly traded lender by market value, reached its lowest intraday price since March.

The 147-company Tadawul All Share Index (SASEIDX) slumped 5.9 percent to 6,041.01, the steepest intraday decline since March 1, at 12:41 p.m. in Riyadh. All 15 industry groups fell. The index has fallen 11 percent from the year-high of 6,786.03 on May 22.

Oil prices not yet at producer pain threshold | Reuters

Oil prices in London would have to drop below $90 a barrel, adding to a roughly $20 drop from this year's highs, for oil-producing countries and major companies to begin feeling the pain.

The events of the Arab Spring have helped to drive up OPEC's budget-balancing needs to near $100 a barrel, compared with above $108 for Brent crude Friday.

At the same time, a rise in steel and other industrial metals has pushed up the marginal cost for extracting the most expensive crude -- a level often considered a gauge for the market's floor -- to roughly $90.

Gulf Times – Top UK stockbroker sees ‘positive’ outlook for Qatar

Panmure Gordon, a member of the London bourse, has a “positive” outlook on Qatar and its equity market in view of the immense potentialities in the domestic economy.

“We believe that the outlook for both the Qatari economy and equity market is positive,” Panmure said, forecasting that the country’s overall real GDP (gross domestic product) was expected to average 6.9% between 2011 and 2016.

Qatar has enjoyed a solid start to 2011, benefiting from higher energy prices and avoiding the political turbulence which occurred in many countries across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, said Panmure, which is the financial advisor and joint broker for Qatar Investment Fund, an Isle of Man-domiciled fund that invests in quoted Qatari equities listed on the Qatar Exchange (QE).

Trip that led to a world of questions

In 2004 Andrew Kelly's former colleague at the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Greg Whiteside, moved into a private sector role in Dubai. There, petro-dollars were raising from the desert a city of impossible excess.

Kelly coveted the tax-free lifestyle he imagined his friend was living. ''I was thinking about how a washed-up has-been might make some serious money,'' he joked to Whiteside in an August 2006 email. How did you get your job, he wanted to know. ''Start talkin to get me walkin.''

It didn't take Kelly long. Nine months later he was gloved inside a limousine as it purred across the desert to Abu Dhabi, where he would check into the Emirates Palace Hotel. It was an extraordinary position to be in for a mid-level government functionary. And in the end, he hadn't needed Whiteside; seated next to him during the flight was Charif Kazal.

Lunch with the FT: Amanda Staveley - FT.com

The dealmaker who has dated a British prince and now brokers multibillion dollar deals for Middle Eastern royalty talks to Roula Khalaf about provoking envy and having her eye on Iraq

Within a few minutes of arriving at Scott’s, and before we glance at the menu, I’ve heard about Amanda Staveley’s wedding dress (made by Sarah Burton, who designed the Duchess of Cambridge’s dress), her latest dealmaking in Dubai, from where she has arrived this morning, and – most intriguingly – her big parallel pursuit of advising an opposition tribal leader in Yemen.

Yes, Yemen. The occasional former model, one-time girlfriend of Prince Andrew and now financial fixer to sheikhs is embracing the Arab spring and hoping that her client, Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, a major businessman in Yemen, will emerge as a beneficiary of an eventual, and inevitable, political transition in the region’s poorest country.

Morocco’s ‘hidden’ billionaire | alifarabia

You won’t find Anas Sefrioui on the Forbes richest list, but that does not mean he is not worthy of their attention. Having raked in $2.6-billion, he has made it into Bloomberg’s short list of hidden billionaires.

The newswire notes that Sefrioui founded the property development company Douja Promotion Groupe Addoha in 1988.

With the help of government subsidies, the company has built more than 190,000 homes spanning almost 15,000 acres throughout Morocco.