JEDDAH — AlKhair Capital, a leading Saudi-based investment institution, ranked 6th among the highest growing mutual funds in Saudi Arabia for 2014. AlKhair's Equity Fund was valued at 46.62 with a +12% percentage change. This is a great accomplishment for Alkhair as it comes during a time when markets are highly competitive. The Saudi markets witnessed drastic ups and downs towards the end of 2014, as regional equity markets were not spared from the turbulence toward the last few months of the year, where TASI index reached the highest level on September 9, 2014 at 11,149.36, carrying on total return of 30.62% while TASI index closed at 8,535.60 in the end of 2014 with losses of 2.37%. The Saudi stock market has quickly evolved into the largest in the Arab world, with estimated capitalization of over $570 billion. This turned the competitiveness in the market up a notch. Even oil prices fluctuated, month-on-month. All sectors saw negative performances in November as investor selling was felt across most of the market due to negative sentiments over declining oil prices. Amid all this, AlKhair Capital powered through and the results are out for everyone to see. Argaam, one of the region's leading financial portals, carried out this survey. The results have also revealed a prominent increase of the mutual funds' net profit invested in the local stock, which managed to reach SR23.66 billion. This reflects an increase of 11% over the previous year, as this year's mutual funds numbers rose by 12 to reach 72 by the end of 2014. The percentage of the assets of these funds for the Saudi market by the end of 2014 was about 1.31%, compared to last 1.22% in 2013. AlKhair's value of trade on the Saudi stock exchange amounted to SR12,919,368,788.50, ranking 21st in terms of trade value. “We're really proud of the rankings and this wouldn't have been possible without the dedication of our entire team”, said Khalid Al Mulhim, Chief Executive Officer, AlKhair Capital. “We're looking forward to an even more fruitful 2015 and the markets are already starting to look better,” he added. — SG
