RIYADH: Saudi Arabian stocks ended the last trading session higher, fueled by optimistic investor sentiment, earnings, and record oil prices. TASI, the main index, gained 0.5 percent to 12,204 points, crossing the 12,200 level after two straight days in the red zone. The parallel market, Nomu, edged up by 0.4 percent to 25,316 points. Nomu will see two new listings on Monday, Gas Arabian Sevices Co. and Obeikan Glass Co., as announced by the bourse.With the Saudi exchange leading, most Middle Eastern bourses closed higher on Sunday. Main indexes of Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and Egypt all advanced between 0.1 and 0.49 percent. On Friday, Dubai’s DFMGI and Abu Dhabi’s FTSE ADX general index were up 0.6 and 0.1 percent, respectively. In energy trading, Brent crude reached $93.5 per barrel, and US benchmark WTI surged to $92.05 per barrel as of 8:05 a.m. Saudi time. Stock news National Shipping Co., better known as Bahri, has reported an 88 percent drop in 2021 profit, reaching SR192 million ($51.3 million), as a fall in global shipping rates weighed on revenues Riyad Bank has appointed HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and Riyad Capital to manage its potential issuance of Sukuk denominated in US dollar The Mediterranean and Gulf Insurance and Reinsurance Co., or MEDGULF, has announced the resignation of board member Suliman Alobaid Abdullah Saad Mohammed Abo Moati for Bookstores Co. posted more than a threefold profit increase for the nine months ending Dec. 31, 2021, due to a rise in salesAlinma Bank recorded a 37.8 percent surge in 2021 profits, propelled by higher operating income Al-Yamamah Steel Industries Co. reported a 20 percent drop in net profit for the first quarter of their financial year starting Sept. 1, mainly due to rising costs Arabia Insurance Cooperative Co. submitted a filing to the Capital Market Authority for a SR265 million capital boost through a rights issue