(CCFI) – The Market witnessed marginal upward movement this week. The CCFI Index opened this week at 160.95 up from previous week’s close of 160.40. It touched a high of 162.24 before closing at 160.72 thus gaining 0.20 percent in the process. The only interesting thing during the week is that while total market volume fell by 19 percent, the value traded increased by 27 percent thanks to increasing activity in banking and industrial sector, representing high-cap stocks.
All the Sectoral indices reflected similar trend with variations ranging from -0.67 percent to +0.58 percent. The stock wise activity was mixed with 25 stocks moving up and 29 moving down. This week witnessed an increase in the number of trades compared to last week. 9661 trades were executed for the week compared to 8898 last week. Industrial sector led with 3411 trades and Banking followed with 3403 trades.
On the Volume front, Industrial sector was the leader with nearly 33 percent of the total market volume, but in terms of turnover, banking sector led with nearly 60 percent of the total turnover. As the half-yearly results from the Banking sector poured-in, the activity in the sector improved. Four of the six banks that announced results so far posted healthy growth in net income. Banking sector showed a reversal of the trend witnessed last week with eight stocks showing a price drop and one stock making positive return (Al-Rajhi Bank).
The oil market continued to rule high, as the OPEC members give confusing signals of a possible early meet to decide on the production increase. The Brent continues to hover in the range of $29 to $ 30/barrel.
Ten most active shares:
The top 10 active stocks continued to dominate the market with more than 65 percent of the market volume generated out of these stocks. Riyad Bank was the topper with 1.1 million shares changing hands constituting more than 13 percent of the market volume. This was followed by SABIC accounting for more than 11 percent of the volume. Al Rajhi Bank, which has been active for quite some time, touched its 52-week high of SR 677.50 this week. It also accounted for 1210 trades showing more retail interest in the stock.
Gainers & Losers:
This week witnessed just 4 stocks showing a price variation of more than 5 percent. Food products made a gain of more than 9 percent but traded only 1054 shares. National Gypsum made a gain of 6.46 percent with just 100 shares changing hands. Fitaihi, which is in the process of discovering its price, was down by nearly 13 percent with 4582 shares changing hands in 26 trades. Al Fransi Bank and Al Jazira Bank were the major losers in the banking sector with a drop of 2percent.
