Saudi stocks decline; KHC, Al Tayyar remain under pressure

The Saudi stock market edged lower in early session on Tuesday, with Al Tayyar Travel Group and Kingdom Holding Co. (KHC) remaining the key decliners for third straight day since reports of their founders’ arrest.

The Tadawul All Share Index (TASI) was down 0.9 percent at 6,923 points in the first hour of trading.

Al Tayyar was last down 9.7 percent at SAR 26.95, while KHC went limit down to SAR 8.1.

Malath Insurance, which said it deposited the new shares from rights issue into shareholders’ accounts, was also down 10 percent at SAR 13.5.

Analysts, meanwhile, believe that the reports of arrests are already factored in and that the Saudi equity market will continue find support from oil, which has rallied to a two-year high.

“People have already factored-in the earlier reports (on corruption probe and arrests),” Chiradeep Ghosh, manager-research at Securities & Investment Co. (SICO), told Argaam.

"More importantly, oil has also rallied a bit,” he said. “I think together the two factors are supportive.”

Petrochemical heavyweight SABIC was last trading slightly higher at SAR 100.6.

Alandalus Property Co., which posted a stable net profit year-on-year for Q3 2017, was up 0.6 percent at SAR 18.9. 

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