Saudi Stock Market Gains 85% In 2004

The TADAWUL All Share Index closed on Thursday 30 December 2004 (the last trading day for the Saudi market in 2004) at 8,206.23, up 84.93% from the year 2003. According to Abdullah Al Suweilmy, General Manager of Tadawul, the index reached its all-time peak of 8375.45 on 29 November 2004. The market capitalisation stood at SAR 1.15 trillion (USD 306.3 billion) by the end of 2004, an increase of 94.7% compared to 2003.

The total value traded during 2004 was SAR 1.77 trillion (USD 473.03 billion) compared with SAR 596.5 billion (USD 159.07 billion) in the year 2003, an increase of 197%. The volume traded in 2004 was 10.3 billion shares compared with 5.6 billion in 2003, an increase of 85%. The total number of transactions in 2004 was 13.3 million compared with 3.76 million transactions in the year 2003, an increase of 254%.

During 2004, the board of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) was appointed. The CMA is entrusted with supervising and regulating the Saudi capital market. Three new issues were listed on the market in 2004. These were the Saudi Industrial Investment Group, Sahara Petrochemical, and Etihad Etisalat (the second mobile operator in the Kingdom). The public offering of NCCI started on 21 December 2004. NCCI will be the first insurance company to be listed on the Saudi Stock market.