Saudi Stock Market Report July 2005: Index Year To Date Records 60.71% Growth - Over SR 234 Billion Traded In July

The index for July closed at 13,188.75 points compared with 13,455.24 for June 2005, with a drop of 1.98 %. Year to-date, the index increased by 60.71 %.

Market capitalization by the end of July 2005 closed up at SR 1.9 trillion (US$ 507 billion) dropping by 2% compared with market capitalization for June 2005.

The total value of shares traded in June 2005 reached SR 234.7 billion (US$ 63 billion) compared with SR 449 billion from last June of 2005 dropping by 48 %.

Total number of shares traded in July, 2005 was 772 million shares compared with 1.4 billion shares traded in June 2005, dropping by 45%.

Total transactions in July, 2005 has reached 3.3 million transactions compared with 4.8 million transactions for June 2005, dropping by 32%.

New IPO:

Almarai in July launched its IPO with a paid up capital of SR 750 million with 15 million shares. The company offered 4.5 million shares at SR 512 per share effective July 4, 2005

Corporate Actions of the Month:

• SAFOLA Group Co. increased its paid up capital by issuing one bonus share for each five shares raising its total shares to 30 million effective July 16, 2005.