Saudi stocks edge up ahead of fourth tranche of inclusion on FTSE Russel

Saudi stocks edge up ahead of fourth tranche of inclusion on FTSE Russel
September 22, 2019, 10:28 am

Saudi Arabian stocks edged up on Sunday ahead of their inclusion on FTSE Russel’s emerging market index. (File photo AFP)

Saudi Arabian stocks edged up on Sunday ahead of their inclusion on FTSE Russel’s emerging market index.

The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), the Middle East’s largest market, is set to complete on September 23 its fourth tranche of inclusion on FTSE as part of a five-tranche process. This comes after it wrapped up its inclusion on MSCI’s Emerging Markets Index in August.

The Tadawul initially joined the two indexes earlier this year.

The benchmark Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) edged up 0.20 percent on Sunday by midday trading.

The market was also supported by the Kingdom’s announcement that the recent attacks on Saudi Aramco’s oil-processing facilities had no impact on government revenue, as well as the central bank's decision to cut to key interest rates.

On the energy index, National Shopping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) jumped 1.70 percent, while Saudi Arabia Refineries Co. surged 3.02 percent.

Elsewhere, on the materials index, petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) rose 0.33 percent, while Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Maaden) fell 0.55 percent.

On September 18, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the Kingdom would maintain full oil supply to its customers, and that oil production capacity is expected to rebound to 11 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of September.

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