The Saudi Tadawul index closed 0.6 percent lower at 5,218.69 points. However, the index was heading much lower during the first hours of trading and could eventually regain territory. With oil prices heading south, investors sold oil and oil service stocks in particular. Saudi Vitrified Caly Pipes (SVPC) posted the largest loss (down 6.18 percent). Market bellwether SABIC failed to break through the resistance line at SR51 and lost 2.91 percent. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Maaden) said on Monday its 2009 first-quarter net profit declined 47 percent to SR18 million Saudi ($4.8 million) compared to SR35 million during the same period a year earlier. Total revenue for the first quarter increased 6 percent to SR76 million year-on-year, the company said in a statement on the Saudi bourse website. Emaar E.C. said on Monday its 2009 first-quarter net loss tripled to SR62.3 million ($16.6 million) from SR19.3 million during the same period a year earlier. The rising losses were due to an increase in operating costs and a decline in the income the company generates from its deposits, the company said in a statement on bourse website. Saudi Electricity Co (SEC) also reported a net loss of SR771 million ($205.6 million) for the first quarter of 2009, the same as the corresponding quarter a year earlier.
