JEDDAH – Saudi shares closed slightly up Saturday, with the stock benchmark Tadawul All Share Index recouping losses sustained during early trading to gain 0.20 percent by the end of the session at 6,902.53 points, led by banking stocks. The index has rallied 7.1 percent so far this year, the largest gain since 2009. The gauge fell 3.8 percent in November as US President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers differed on how to avoid more than $600 billion of deficit-reduction measures also called the “fiscal cliff.” “The Saudi stock market's trading today is influenced by fears of the US fiscal cliff that evidently affected international markets in a negative manner yesterday,” said Mohammed Al-Omran, financial analyst and president of the Gulf Center for Financial Consultancy in Riyadh. “The effect of the news on the Saudi market is almost subdued.” Saudi share prices are often influenced by activity on Wall Street and in global oil markets, both of which suffered minor losses Friday. The banking index gained 0.17 percent, led by a 0.38 percent rise for heavyweight Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Arabia's largest listed lender. However, the important petrochemical index lost 0.35 percent. Sabic, the world's largest petrochemical maker, lost 0.8 percent to SR91.50. Samba dropped 0.4 percent to SR46.20. The collapse of a Republican plan to avoid the US “fiscal cliff” Friday caused shares to dip on Wall Street and oil prices to fall by more than 1 percent. Brent February crude fell $1.23 a barrel and US February crude dropped $1.47 a barrel. The Dow Jones Industrial average closed down 0.91 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 0.94 percent. Gold struck the lowest level since August, hit also by profit-taking ahead of the year-end, dragging other precious metals lower. By late Friday on the London Bullion Market, gold slid to $1,651.50 an ounce from $1,696.25 a week earlier. Silver dropped to $29.89 an ounce from $32.52. – SG/Agencies
