Saudi Arabian shares rose, with the Tadawul All Share Index recording the third-biggest monthly gain in a year on Saturday, closing 0.27 percent higher at 6,283.73 points. The 143-company gauge rose 0.3 percent to 6283.73, the highest since June 28, at the 3:30 p.m. close in Riyadh, after falling as much as 0.2 percent. Al Rajhi Bank, the biggest publicly traded lender in Saudi Arabia, was the leading mover, while Samba Financial services, the Kingdom's second biggest lender by market value, drove lagging movers. Tadawul gained 3.1 percent in July, the highest monthly gain since March. “Today's small uptick is nothing to call home about,” said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi in Riyadh. “Oil has been hovering in the high $70s and global equities have been rather flat as the summer lull is taking hold in Europe and the US.” European, US and developing-nation markets declined this week. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index slipped 0.2 percent, as the S&P 500 fell 0.1 percent. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index, which tracks developing- nation equity markets, declined 0.2 percent on Friday, paring its monthly gain to 8 percent. Crude for September delivery settled at $78.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday. Futures gained 4.4 percent in July and 18 percent in the past year. Saudi Arabia holds one-fifth of the world's proven oil reserves. Al Rajhi rose 0.6 percent to SR79.5, the highest since June 14. Samba declined the most since July 25, losing 1.2 percent to SR60. Riyad Bank, Saudi Arabia's third-largest lender by market value, slid 1.4 percent to SR28.6. Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the world's largest petrochemical maker, was unchanged at SR86.5. Saudi Electricity Co. rose 0.7 percent to SR14.15, the highest since April 2008, after the state-controlled power producer awarded a SR223 million contract to Mohammed Al-Ojaimi Contracting to link a transformer station in northern Riyadh with the electric grid. Saudi Investment Bank rose to the highest since October 2009, gaining 2.2 percent to SR20.65, as the Kingdom's third-smallest publicly traded bank reduced provisions on bad loans by 4.2 percent in the second quarter.
