Saudi Arabia's equity market climbed modestly by the close on Thursday, with advances in Petrochemicals, Cement and Telecoms & IT supporting a small overall gain.
At the close, the Tadawul All Share index rose 0.04% to reach a new one-month high.
Top performers
- Alwasail Industrial Co (TADAWUL:4148) was the session's strongest performer, up 5.22% or 0.14 points to close at 2.82.
- Rabigh Refining & Petrochemical Co (TADAWUL:2380) gained 4.25% or 0.43 points to finish at 10.55.
- Gulf Union Cooperative Insurance (TADAWUL:8120) rose 3.92% or 0.44 points to end the day at 11.66.
Lagging stocks
- Saudi Research and Marketing Group (TADAWUL:4210) fell 4.12% or 3.50 points to close at 81.55.
- Saudi Company for Hardware (TADAWUL:4008) dropped 3.87% or 0.99 points to end at 24.61.
- Al Sorayai Trading & Industrial Group (TADAWUL:1213) declined 3.66% or 0.90 points to finish at 23.70.
On the Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange, decliners outnumbered advancers by 232 to 105, while 19 stocks finished unchanged.
Commodities and currencies
Energy markets were active during the session. Crude oil for May delivery rose 5.42% or 5.12 to $99.53 a barrel, and Brent for June delivery increased 3.93% or 3.72 to $98.47 a barrel. In precious metals, the June Gold Futures contract slipped 0.17% or 8.25 to trade at $4,768.95 a troy ounce.
Currency moves were subdued. EUR/SAR inched up 0.18% to 4.38, while USD/SAR was unchanged at 3.75. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 98.75.
Additional note on market tools
The session's summary also referenced AI-driven stock selection tools, noting AI computing powers are changing the stock market and that an AI-based strategy had produced notable winners. It stated that an AI portfolio strategy doubled the S&P 500 within 18 months and cited examples of individual stocks that previously outperformed.