Saudi’s stock market suffers as investors flee
The Kingdom’s bourse suffered heavy losses from selling by investors dominated by fears of financial market shocks in the coming period as companies continue to suffer amid regional turmoil and the prospect of a global financial crisis following a US recession as trade war rages with China.
The general index of the Saudi stock market continued its decline for the third session, recording the highest daily losses in more than 3 months, after falling by 2.42 percent, losing 203.9 points, and closed at 8241.6 points.
The Technology and Services sector led decliners by 3.24 per cent, the banking sector fell 2.7 per cent and basic materials fell 2.65 per cent, while 176 companies fell, out of 190 listed companies.
A large proportion of Saudi listed companies suffered heavy losses during the first half of this year, some of which are close to 10,000 percent compared to the same period last year.
This has continued to bleed losses in recent years due to the collapse of many activities, the decline in oil revenues and the cost of war in Yemen, and conflicts in the Gulf region.
Fifty companies lost about 28 percent of the 179 listed companies in the market, and 88 companies lost profits, representing about half of the companies.
The results of the companies, which were disclosed successively during the past days, showed that 32 companies losses exceeded 100 percent, and the losses of a company approached 10,000 percent, while losses of more than four thousand companies percent.
The economic crises in the Kingdom are exacerbated by the policy of Mohammed bin Salman, which cast a negative shadow on the reality of the Kingdom and hit the economic structure there.
This comes at a time when the Kingdom is suffering the scourge of war in Yemen economically, and with Riyadh incurred a lot of expenses on armament to confront the Houthis.
The negative indicators that warn of bad future of the Kingdom’s economy, which has faced many challenges over the past few years, are not ceased by the fiscal policies and political and military decisions of the Saudi regime.
Experts and international economic institutions and international research companies warned of the risks faced by the Saudi economy and from a sudden contraction if the Saudi regime continues their current financial policy.
Last year, the kingdom’s economy grew modestly by 1.6%, according to SAMA data.
According to a report by the US “Bloomberg,” the growth of the non-oil economy in the Kingdom did not exceed more than 0.6%.
