Falling oil prices during the past week had no clear impact on the Saudi stock market. Registering upward spike at about 2.3 percent, the Saudi market managed to achieve positive gains against a significant drop in oil markets. The positive performance of Saudi stocks reflects a high level of investor confidence, as the oil-rich kingdom has begun taking significant steps for diversifying its economy, opening up wider prospects for private sector companies. On Wednesday, oil prices saw a sharp drop of over 7 percent for Brent crude early-on in the trading session, but soon eased losses, and stabilized again on Thursday. These developments come at a time foreign investors hold up to 5 percent of the Saudi stock market, at a total value of 97.2 billion riyals ($ 25.9 billion), according to statistics released about six days ago. An increase in foreign stock ownership in the Saudi stock market reflects the gravity of the Saudi financial market on one hand and the high level of confidence the Saudi economy enjoys on the other. In upcoming weeks, Saudi companies are expected to release fiscal reports for the second quarter of 2018. Last week, four companies had an early release for their financial reports for Q2 2018—showing positive prospects for a better third quarter, after showing substantial improvement in the second quarter when compared to yesterday. The market ended its week with positive gains of 2.3%, or 184 points, closing at 8,362 points. The total value of transactions during the last week was not significant, standing at about 14.98 billion riyals (4 billion dollars) compared to 16.64 billion riyals (4.4 billion dollars) during the previous week. It is worth noting that the Saudi economy, the largest in the Middle East, achieved positive growth in the first quarter of 2018, at 1.2 percent. Growth is strong proof of the feasibility of economic reforms for diversifying the kingdom’s economy, reducing oil dependence. According to Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Statistics, the GDP of the non-oil sector in Saudi Arabia achieved a more positive growth rate during the first quarter of this year, at 1.6%, accompanied by a growth in the non-oil sector at about 2.7% during the same period. The Saudi GDP rose by 1.2 percent by the end of Q1, reaching 647.8 billion riyals ($ 172.7 billion). Non-oil GDP rose by 1.6 percent by the end of 2018 Q1, touching 371.02 billion riyals ($ 98.9 billion). The GDP of the oil sector rose 0.6 percent to 273.3 billion riyals ($ 72.8 billion) in the first quarter of 2018 compared to 271.6 billion riyals ($ 72.4 billion) in the first quarter of 2017.