Telecom shares lead Saudi market

The record profits announced by STC and Mobily, and the commercial launch of Zain, pushed the three shares up. Zain rose 4.3%, STC by 4.1% and 1.4% for Mobily.

Egyptian Financial Group Hermes recommended STC and Mobily shares, setting their prices at SR101 and SR85 respectively. The move pushed portfolio managers to buy the two shares in large quantities at their current prices - which is 45% under market value for STC at SR69.75 and 63.4% for Mobily at SR52.

Sabic traded without profits

The petrochemical and bank sectors put the Tadawul under pressure. All bank shares declined except Al Inmaa, which rose by 3% in the last minutes of trading after large buying orders were placed by investment portfolios.

Samba fell by 2.9% after its H1 profits declined by 5%, Al Rajhi fell by 0.58% and Saudi Hollandi bank fell by 1.2%.

Following Sabic's management board decision to allocate SR1.75 profits per share, traders started to sell the share. As a result Sabic fell by 3% to SR135, while Kayan rose by 1% and Petrorabigh by 0.44%. Yansab fell by 2.4%.

Astra IPO started, Ma'aden listed

The 30% Initial Public Offering in Astra began yesterday, with 22 million shares launched out of its total capital of SR630m. The share was priced at SR42, including SR10 as nominal value and SR32 for issuance fees.

Ma'aden's share will be listed on the market on Monday, after the completion of adding IPO shares to investors' portfolios. The market has seen active preparations for Ma'aden's listing.

Ma'aden will be the second largest IPO in the history of the Saudi market, after Al Inmaa Bank collected SR9bn.