Saudi stocks have displayed strong performance last week, with the Tadawul All Share Index (TASI), climbing 4 percent and closing at 12,989.26 points, showing a slight fall of 7.78 points or 0.06 percent on Thursday, after crashing the 13,000-point psychological barrier when it hit a record high of 13,057 points on Wednesday. Out of 75 stocks traded, share prices of 38 companies went up when 32.1 million shares worth SR8.9 billion changed hands, while 33 companies showed fall in prices, Arab News reported today. Qassim Agricultural Company, whose prices dropped 0.17 percent to SR144.50, dominated the market with exchange of 5.3 million shares. TASI is currently 58.3 percent higher than year's start, according to the Bakheet Financial Advisors (BFA). The Saudi stock exchange received backing from 8.5 percent gain scored by the Saudi Telecom Co. (STC), against investors' expectation of solid Q2 profits following the firm's conclusion of an agreement with the new mobile operator, Mobily. The market also received support from an announcement by the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) that it was establishing a subsidiary, Yansab, with a multi-billion dollar paid-up capital at the Yanbu Industrial City Prices went up in the electricity, agriculture, industry and insurance sectors while went down in banking, cement, services and telecom sectors. The industrial sector gained 93.97 points or 0.33 percent, reaching the third place in the market, with exchange of 7.7 million shares in 35,000 deals valued at SR3.6 billion. Of the total 27 industrial firms, prices of 19 went up while that of seven went down. The sector closed at 28,0780.25 points. The electricity sector rose by 0.59 percent with 15.31 points to close at 2,617.45 points. The banking sector index closed at 31,930.00, down 58.02 points and cement sector index closed 58.60 points lower at 8,569.17. --SP 1056 Local Time 0756 GMT
