RIYADH: The Saudi stock exchange’s main TASI index extended its gains in the prior session amid a resilient oil market, even as the Saudi Health Ministry confirmed 3,045 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, up from only 34 on Dec. 1. TASI went up by 0.85 percent to 11,453 points, while the parallel market Nomu dropped 1.7 percent 25,352 points. Nomu is to see a new listing today of Advance International Co., or AICTEC, following a strong debut by food delivery startup Jahez International Co. in the previous session. Saudi’s gains were in line with fellow GCC bourses, all of which closed higher except for indexes of Abu Dhabi and Bahrain that remained flat. The Qatari index QSI led, up 1.8 percent, followed by TASI and Kuwait’s BKP, with the latter adding 0.7 percent. Dubai’s main index DFMGI and Oman’s MSX30 edged up in the range of 0.2 to 0.3 percent. Elsewhere in the Middle East, the Egyptian index EGX30 gained 0.5 percent. As of 8:44 a.m. Saudi time, Brent crude settled near $80 per barrel, while US WTI crude oil reached $77 per barrel after OPEC+ sticked to plans to boost output in February and unrest broke in Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest oil producer. Stock news Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Services Group signed a 50-year lease contract worth SR32.5 million ($8.65 million) with Tabuk Municipality to set up a hospital Saudi Real Estate Co., known as Al Akaria, made a purchase of a SR727 million raw land in Riyadh for infrastructure development Red Sea International Co. inked an extension contract with oilfield services company Schlumberger to support its oil drilling operations in the Eastern region Calendar Jan. 6, 2022 Advance International Co. for Communications and Technology, AICTEC, to debut on the parallel market Nomu Sadr Logistics will start compensating rights issue owners who did not exercise their subscription rights