Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index, the Tadawul All Share Index, dropped 4.05 percent to 4,705.44 at close on Saturday trading, led by Alinma Bank and Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the Middle East's biggest publicly-traded petrochemicals company. Shares worth SR3.4 billion changing hands. Some 104 shares fell and 18 rose. Alinma Bank, the startup Saudi Arabian Islamic bank that raised $2.8 billion in an April stock offering, fell 2.2 percent to SR11.30. Saudi Basic Industries declined 6.8 percent to SR55. Arab National Bank, the bourse's top loser, fell 8.8 percent to SR30.20. In New York, stocks finished a bumpy session mostly higher Friday, as investors, while still somewhat cautious about the economy, were encouraged by the government's pledge to lend as much as $17.4 billion to US automakers. The Dow Jones industrial average finished down about 25 points, but both the broader Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq composite indexes posted moderate advances, finishing higher for the second straight week in a row.Stocks that rose outpaced those that fell by about 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange. The Dow fell 25.88, or 0.30 percent, to 8,579.11. The S&P's 500 index rose 2.60, or 0.29 percent, to 887.88, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.95, or 0.77 percent, to 1,564.32. For the week, the Dow ended down 0.59 percent, while the S & P 500 finished up 0.93 percent and the Nasdaq up 1.53 percent. All of the indexes are still down more than 35 percent for the year. Crude oil for January delivery fell 6.5 percent on Friday, capping the biggest weekly drop since the Gulf War in 1991.
