RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s main stock index, TASI, started Monday’s session higher amid positive market news that elevated investors who remain cautious on earnings. TASI traded 0.3 percent higher at 12,172 points, and the parallel market Nomu was almost flat at 25,700 points as of 10:15 a.m. Saudi time. Oil giant Saudi Aramco and the Kingdom’s largest lender, the Saudi National Bank, SNB, both recorded losses amounting to 0.14 percent. Shares in Alinma Bank added 0.6 percent amid trading of over 300,000 shares. Arabian Centres Co., known as Almrakez, recorded the highest gains in early trading of 2.6 percent. Almrakez earlier said it will distribute cash dividends at SR0.75 ($0.2) per share for the first half of the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2021. A major producer of electrical power in the Kingdom, Saudi Electricity Co., saw a 2 percent hike in its share price, followed by utility provider ACWA POWER Co., up 0.7 percent. Shares in Methanol Chemical Co. were up 0.4 percent after it obtained the Ministry of Energy’s approval to allocate the required feedstock and expand its methanol plant by increasing output to 331,000 tons per year. In energy trading, Brent crude oil reached $88.4 per barrel, and US benchmark WTI crude oil was up to $85.6 per barrel as of 10:15 a.m. Saudi time.