RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s main stock index, TASI, was dragged down by a near 1 percent fall in its major market players – Al Rajhi Bank, SABIC, and Saudi Aramco. It gave up some of its IPO-induced gains from last week, despite IPO applications that are ongoing. The decline amounted to almost 1 percent, leading the index to close at 11,168 points. This came in line with GCC bourses as the main stock indexes of Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Oman, and Kuwait all saw declines from 1 to 4 percent. Saudi bourse’s parallel market, Nomu, ended the session close to flat at 26,560 points. Al Rajhi Bank, the largest in the Saudi banking sector, retreated to SR140 ($37) with SR203 million worth of shares traded intraday. Shares of Jabal Omar Development Co. weighed the index down, declining 5 percent to a one-year low of SR25.95. This followed the developer’s decision to increase its share offer to Alinma Makkah Real Estate Fund’s manager to settle payment obligations. Saudi Research and Media Group, or SRMG, hit SR184, marking its highest closing price since it achieved an all-time high of SR190 in June 2021. The leap in SRMG was the highest in today’s session, followed by Astra Industrial Group which rose 4.6 percent to SR40.7. In light of the current dominating market theme, last week saw initial public offering applications that are still ongoing with the kick-off of the new trading week. The Capital Market Authority has approved 29 out of 70 initial public offering applications for 2021, Eqtisadiah reported on Dec. 26. It added that the authority is currently taking steps to expand the number of future listings in order to enhance the performance of the Kingdom’s financial market.