RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s stock market closed lower on Wednesday, in line with the energy market, and dragged down by some of the Kingdom’s major players. At the closing bell, the main index, TASI, was down 0.82 percent to 12,192 points, and the parallel market, Nomu, dropped by 1.46 percent, reaching 25,186 points. Oil giant Aramco weighed on TASI as it fell 1.34 percent. Major chemical maker SABIC edged 0.5 percent lower. SABIC had closed a deal to acquire Clariant’s stake in US-based Scientific Design — a global leader in licensing chemical process technologies. The firm is currently a 50/50 joint venture between the two parties. In the financial sector, the Kingdom’s biggest lender, Saudi National Bank, or SNB, declined by 2.67 percent despite hitting a record closing high of SR74.9 ($20) last session. SNB had earlier reported an increase in profit of 10.7 percent in 2021 from a year ago. Metal producer Maadaniyah topped the gainers in today’s session as its shares jumped 7.45 percent. Saudi Automotive Services Co., or SASCO, led the fallers, down 3.5 percent. Maadaniyah had earlier announced that it narrowed down accumulated losses to 8.3 percent of capital. In energy trading, Brent crude reached $88.9 per barrel, and US benchmark WTI crude oil hit $88.1 per barrel as of 3:29 p.m. Saudi time.