(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia’s benchmark stock index fell the most in the Middle East after the kingdom’s wealth fund sold part of its stake in country’s biggest telecom operator at a discount.
The timing of the secondary share offering in Saudi Telecom Co. was “quite suboptimal, towards year-end with liquidity drying up in the market, when books are being closed, and in tandem with the IPO of Tadawul,” said Ziad Itani, an executive director at Arqaam Capital equity research. “We do not see the STC hiccup as an indication for weak appetite on the upcoming IPO flurry, but rather a technical one-off.”
- Tadawul All Share Index declines 0.5%
- STC trades 4% lower after falling as much as 6.2%
- Stock trades at lowest since January
- Banks also drag gauge lower: Al Rajhi Bank -0.9%; Riyad Bank -1.7%; Saudi National Bank -0.5%
- READ: Saudi Arabia Banks’ Growth Opportunities Abound Despite Risks
- STC trades 4% lower after falling as much as 6.2%
Middle Eastern markets snapshot at 12:03 p.m. in Dubai:
- Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index gains 0.7%
- Dubai Financial Market General Index flat
- Kuwait’s Premier Market Index rises 0.1%
- Qatar’s QE Index falls 0.1%
- Egypt’s EGX 30 Index little changed
Top EM Stories:
- Dubai plans to list Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corp., a venture between a unit of Dubai Holding and a state-owned utility, on its stock market as part of plans to deepen its capital market
- Negotiators in Vienna made progress in rescuing nuclear talks between Iran and world powers, after revised Iranian proposals put forward last week appeared to derail the diplomacy
- Kuwait Projects, the holding company with assets of about $33 billion, appointed Sheikha Dana Nasser Sabah Al Ahmad as its CEO, in another senior appointment for a woman in the Gulf
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