#Saudi Equity Index Shrugs Off Sabic’s Lower 2Q Profit: Inside EM - Bloomberg

Saudi Equity Index Shrugs Off Sabic’s Lower 2Q Profit: Inside EM - Bloomberg:

Saudi Arabia’s stocks gauge ended Sunday’s session higher even after the country’s biggest publicly traded company reported profit for the second quarter that was the lowest in a decade.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp.’s net income dropped to 2.12 billion riyals ($565 million) in the three months ended in June, shrinking 68% from last year, as lower petrochemical prices impacted performance. The biggest petrochemicals maker in the Middle East fell as much as 3.8% in Riyadh, before trimming the loss to 0.7% at close. Sabic is the third-largest individual constituent of the main Saudi gauge.

“The new capacities in key products lines that pressured Sabic’s product prices and margins in the first half of 2019 are expected to continue to impact the company’s earnings in the second half of 2019,” the company said.