JEDDAH — Saudi Arabia stocks were lower after the close on Monday, as losses in the Telecoms & IT, Multi Investment and Media & Publishing sectors led shares lower. The Saudi stock benchmark Tadawul All Share Index declined 0.32% at 8,437.26 points to hit a new 6-months low. The best performers of the session on the Tadawul All Share were Tabuk Cement Co., which rose 8.25% or 1.75 points to trade at 22.95 at the close. Meanwhile, Aldrees Petroleum & Transport Svcs added 2.69% or 1.55 points to end at 59.25 and Saudi Hollandi Bank was up 2.27% or 1.00 points to 45.00 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Ace Arabia Cooperative Insurance, which fell 9.54% or 7.20 points to trade at 68.25 at the close. AXA Cooperative Insurance Company declined 9.41% or 2.17 points to end at 20.90 and Takween Advanced Industries was down 8.58% or 5.00 points to 53.25. Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Saudi Arabia Stock Exchange by 125 to 41. Crude oil for October delivery was down 0.72% or 0.31 to $42.80 a barrel. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Brent oil for delivery in October rose 0.13% or 0.07 to hit $49.26 a barrel, while the December Gold contract rose 0.57% or 6.30 to trade at $1119.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere, Dubai's index closed 0.1 percent lower at 3,927 after hitting an intra-day low of 3,911 points, close to chart support at its May low of 3,913 points. Builder Arabtec rose 2.4 percent after tumbling 5.4 percent in the previous session on poor second-quarter results. Abu Dhabi's bourse fell 0.9 percent to 4,631 points and Abu Dhabi National Insurance Co tumbled 9.4 percent, having reported a 299 million dirham ($81.4 million) loss for the first half of 2015 at the end of last week, compared with a profit of 104 million dirhams a year earlier. Qatar's market slipped 0.9 percent to 11,735 points and Industries Qatar, whose petrochemicals business is suffering from the oil price plunge, was one of the main drags, sliding 1.2 percent. But Commercial Bank of Qatar edged up 0.2 percent, extending gains since index compiler MSCI announced late last week that it would nearly double the stock's weighting in its emerging markets index. Egypt's bourse closed 0.4 percent lower at 7,594 points, trimming losses after it rebounded from technical support near its July low of 7,527 points.
Kuwait index fell 1.1 percent to 6,196 points, while Oman index lost 1.2 percent to 6,220 points. Bahrain index was flat at 1,332 points. — SG/Agencies
