Saudi market cap slips 0.4% in week ending March 2

Saudi Arabia’s stock market capitalization declined by 0.4 percent week-on-week to SAR 1.64 trillion in the week to March 2, according to weekly data released by the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

The total value of shares traded increased by 8.08 percent to SAR 19.87 billion last week.

Saudi investors bought SAR 18.29 billion worth of shares, or 92.05 percent of the total buying transactions. They sold SAR 18.34 billion in shares, or 92.29 percent of total selling activity.

Saudi citizens’ ownership of total market capitalization rose 0.06 percent, accounting for 93.53 percent of the total during the week.

GCC investors bought SAR 403 million in shares, or 2.03 percent of the total buying volume. They sold SAR 297 million in shares, comprising 1.5 percent of selling transactions.

GCC investors’ ownership decreased by 0.003 percent to 2.40 percent of the market capitalization last week, the data showed.

Meanwhile, foreign investors bought SAR 1.18 billion in shares, representing 5.92 percent of the total. They sold SAR 1.24 billion in shares, or 6.22 percent of total selling activities.

Foreign ownership of Saudi stocks slipped 0.06 percent to 4.07 percent of total market capitalization by the end of the trading week.