5 things you need to know on Tadawul today

Here are a few things you need to know as Saudi stocks start trading on Thursday.

1) Saudi Arabia is considering plans to prepare for a possible delay to the initial public offering of state-owned Saudi Aramco by a few months into 2019, Bloomberg reported.

2) Saudi Arabia’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) has approved the Mediterranean and Gulf Insurance and Reinsurance Co.’s (MedGulf) request to reduce capital by SAR 600 million to SAR 400 million to narrow its accumulated losses.

3) Southern Province Cement Co. said it will pay SAR 1 per share as cash dividend for H1 2017 on October 1, 2017 through Arab National Bank.

4) Al Alamiya Cooperative Insurance Co. has obtained an extension of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s (SAMA) temporary approval for a lifestyle insurance product, starting from Sep. 12, 2017 until Dec. 31, 2017.

5) Oil prices slipped on Thursday, although Brent crude remained above $55-level. The benchmark grade was down 0.3 percent at $55.02, while WTI crude fell 0.2 percent to $49.22/bbl. The International Energy Agency (IEA) revised upwards its growth estimate to 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd), noting stronger-than-expected growth in demand.

Write to Nadeshda Zareen at nadeshda.zareen@argaamplus.com