Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index fell the most in the Middle East after the kingdom’s wealth fund sold part of its stake in country’s biggest telecom operator at a discount.
The timing of the secondary share offering in Saudi Telecom Co. was “quite suboptimal, towards year-end with liquidity drying up in the market, when books are being closed, and in tandem with the IPO of Tadawul,” said Ziad Itani, an executive director at Arqaam Capital equity research. “We do not see the STC hiccup as an indication for weak appetite on the upcoming IPO flurry, but rather a technical one-off.”
- Tadawul All Share Index declines 0.5%
- STC trades 4% lower after falling as much as 6.2%
- Stock trades at lowest since January
- Banks also drag gauge lower: Al Rajhi Bank -0.9%; Riyad Bank -1.7%; Saudi National Bank -0.5%
- Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index gains 0.7%
- Dubai Financial Market General Index flat
- Kuwait’s Premier Market Index rises 0.1%
- Qatar’s QE Index falls 0.1%
- Egypt’s EGX 30 Index little changed
No comments:
Post a Comment