Saudi Cabinet approves a tourism MoU with Jamaica

RIYADH: The Saudi benchmark suffered its biggest quarterly loss in nearly two years, triggered by rising interest rates and inflation risks that pushed the stock market in bear market territory.

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index fell by 12 percent in the second quarter of 2022 from the previous quarter, ending the quarter at 11,523 points, according to statistics released by the Capital Market Authority.

This decline marks the first time for TASI to decline on a quarterly basis since the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the index during the first quarter of 2020.

TASI’s market capitalization fell 4.34 percent in the second quarter of the year to reach SR11.44 trillion ($3 trillion) from SR11.9 billion at the end of the previous quarter.

The main market exited the quarter with the total value of shares traded declining 9 percent quarter-over-quarter to SR495 billion.

However, the daily average number of trades on the main market increased by 5 percent from the previous quarter, reaching 388,894.23 trades per day.

The parallel market, which captures the performance of 31 firms listed, expanded its decline from the first quarter as it reached 21,585 during the second quarter, a 14 percent drop.

The market cap of Nomu-Parallel fell 10 percent to SR35 billion, while its total value traded dropped 71 percent to SR2 billion.