Insurance firms in the limelight

The contest between bulls and bears ended without any significant change at Saudi stock market yesterday, as Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed just below the break-even line, trimming less than a single point or 0.01 percent. The index traded within a narrow range of 28 points yesterday. Small cap and Micro cap traded positively among market cap indices. Saudi sector indices performed in a mixed fashion, with seven sectors accumulating an aggregate of 235 points and eight sectors paring 107 points collectively. Multi-Investment sector changed its position from worst performing sector of previous day to the top performer of the day, advancing by 1.49 percent. Hotel & Tourism followed it, rising by 1.26 percent. Kingdom Holding outperformed among heavy weight stocks, recovering 4.4 percent from previous couple of days' losses. The company also performed well among all Saudi equities, closing at SR 13.05, ranked fifth. Only Riyad Bank went downward, declining 0.22 percent for the day. While, six heavyweights including Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) ended without any change. The market breadth was slightly weak with 78 stocks witnessing declines against 51 stocks witnessing advances. Insurance companies continued to show the best performance among all Saudi stocks, with Allied Cooperative Insurance Group - ACIG surging 9.9 percent, Alalamiya Cooperative Insurance 9.75 percent and Saudi Arabian Insurance 7.16 percent. From : Arabnews