Saudi Arabia's Tadawul stock market has worst day in three months

The Tadawul fell to its lowest point in three months as petrochemical and banking stocks pulled down shares.

The Tadawul All-Share Index shed almost 1 per cent of its value. AP Photo
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Saudi Arabia's Tadawul, the largest stock market in the Arab world, fell to its lowest point in three months as heavyweight petrochemical and banking stocks dragged down shares.

The Tadawul All-Share Index shed almost 1 per cent of its value to end at 6,442.70 points after shares in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), the largest company by market capitalisation in the Middle East, slipped 1 per cent to 101 Saudi riyals.

Al Rajhi Bank, another bellwether stock, fell 2.1 per cent to 71.25 riyals.

The Tadawul was the worst performing measure in the Gulf.

UAE markets led gains as worries over a slowdown in the global economy subsided and investors jumped on the MSCI listing bandwagon. Speculation that the UAE was likely to be upgraded to "emerging market" status, from the riskier "frontier market" category, by the index compiler MSCI tomorrow helped to fuel positive sentiment on local bourses.

The Dubai Financial Market rose as much as 0.7 per cent at the opening session, although it later capped those gains to end marginally lower at 1,598.79 points.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange rose to its highest point since November as it added 0.5 per cent to 2,775.44 points.

Qatar was the only other market to notch up gains yesterday as it rose 0.2 per cent to 8,334.67 points.

"We started the month on a better note anyway, but I think the MSCI upgrade could be happening," said Mohammed Ali Yasin, the chief investment officer at CAPM Investment.