Foreign investors in Saudi stock market hit a new record, with data released by Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) showing a rise in the ownership of foreign investors to 5.10 percent. This rise reflects trust in the Saudi financial market on the one hand and the high level of confidence the Saudi economy enjoys on the other. The Saudi Stock Market Index closed on Sunday at a rise of 0.2 percent, closing at 8467 points, amid a total turnover of $754.6 million. Traders in Tadawul expect listed companies to announce their financial results of this year’s second quarter, while some reports of experienced financial institutions showed an expected growth in the profits of banks, petrochemicals companies and some telecom stocks. As of Sunday, around 18 listed companies announced their results for Q2 2018, showing a new growth of 20.1 percent in the first half of this year. These developments come with the Saudi economy, the largest in the Middle East, achieving a positive growth in the first quarter of this year, at 1.2 percent, a sign on the feasibility of economic reforms aimed at diversifying the economy and reducing oil dependency. Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) indicated the GDP of the non-oil sector in Saudi Arabia achieved a more positive rate during the first quarter of this year, a growth of 1.6 percent. Saudi GDP rose 1.2 percent at the end of the first quarter to reach $172.7 billion compared to $170.7 billion during the same period last year, data showed. Non-oil GDP increased 1.6 percent by the end of the first quarter of this year, reaching $98.9 billion. GDP of the oil sector rose 0.6 percent to $72.8 billion compared to $72.4 billion of the first quarter of previous year. Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised the positive economic reforms adopted by Saudi Arabia, describing the implementation of some initiatives aimed at increasing non-oil revenues as significant achievements. This comes at a time when the figures of the quarterly report of the Saudi budget have revealed a significant increase in non-oil revenues during the first quarter of 2018.
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