The gains achieved by the Saudi stock exchange market have amounted to more than 10 percent since the beginning of 2019. Meanwhile, the market’s performance during the past week was volatile, starting with profit-gaining and concluding with qualitative gains during Thursday’s trading. The value of total transactions during the week increased by 38 percent, amounting to about SAR24.7 billion riyals ($6.58 billion) compared with SAR17.91 billion ($4.77 billion) during the previous week. Last week, the market recorded a decline of 2.7 percent. This came at a time when the market value stabilized at SAR2.005 trillion ($534.6 billion) while the average annual cash dividend yield for listed companies stabilized at 3.38 percent. Purchases by foreign investors from the Saudi stock exchange market are expected to continue. According to financial results of companies listed on the Saudi stock market, profits of cement companies jumped by 62.2 percent, while bank profits rose by 12.7 percent and, profits of energy companies rose 5.6 percent. Results showed improvement in the financial performance of 86 companies (more than half of the major listed companies that announced their financial results). The total results of listed companies showed that they have gained a profit of SAR23.2 billion ($6.1 billion) during Q1 2019. Meanwhile, MSCI Inc, the world’s largest index provider, said 30 Saudi Arabian securities would be added to its closely watched and widely duplicated emerging-markets index. It said they represent an aggregate weight of 1.42 percent in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. All changes will be implemented as of the close of May 28, it said. MSCI said late last year it would allow companies that give shareholders unequal voting rights to remain on its current equity indexes, backing down from an earlier proposal that would have reduced exposure to such companies.