Sunday, 26 July 2015 14:55
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s stock market edged down in early trade on Sunday despite a strong performance by heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC). Egypt’s bourse rose on the back of property stocks.
SABIC jumped 2.0 percent after posting a profit of 6.17 billion riyals ($ 1.64 billion) for the quarter, down from 6.46 billion riyals a year ago but well ahead of the average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Reuters, 4.96 billion riyals.
But the main Saudi stock index slipped 0.3 percent as most banking stocks and other blue chips fell.
Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Ma’aden) slipped 0.6 percent after the price of one of its products, copper, fell to a six-year low as Chinese manufacturing contracted by the most in 15 months in July.
Sahara Petrochemical Co dropped 2.6 percent, having reported a 94 percent decrease in second-quarter profit.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s market climbed 0.3 percent as property firm Talaat Moustafa Group added 1.2 percent and its competitor SODIC jumped 2.2 percent.
The Cairo Post newspaper reported at the weekend that both companies would take part in developing Egypt’s new administrative capital. The government plans to build a new capital east of Cairo within five to seven years at a cost of $ 45 billion, it said in March.
