Saudi bourse suffers biggest fall in over a year after drone attacks

DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s stock market had its biggest intraday fall in over a year on Monday as it extended losses from the previous session following drone attacks.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi movement in Yemen said its air defences destroyed a drone targeting Najran airport in the south of Saudi Arabia, state media reported on Sunday.

Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthi movement said on Saturday it had fired 14 drones at several Saudi Arabian cities, including at Saudi Aramco facilities in Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index fell 2.7%, its biggest intraday fall since Oct. 2020, with Al Rajhi Bank down 4.5% and Saudi National Bank, the kingdom’s biggest lender, retreating 3.7%.

The Saudi-led coalition said it detected indications of an imminent danger to navigation and global trade south of the Red Sea, Saudi state media reported early on Monday.

Among other losers, Aramco dropped 1.8%.

The oil giant was also under pressure after India’s Reliance Industries Ltd said on Friday it had decided with Aramco to reevaluate Aramco’s proposed roughly $15 billion investment in Reliance’s oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business.

However, Nayifat Finance Company, a consumer-focused Islamic finance firm, ended at 35.25 riyals per share, 3.6% above its initial public offering price of 34 riyals.

Dubai’s main share index slid 2.6%, weighed down by a 4.3% decline in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties and a 3.5% retreat in Emirates NBD Bank.

The Qatari index fell 0.9%, hit by a 2.8% drop in petrochemical maker Industries Qatar.

Oil prices, a major influence on the Gulf regions’ financial markets, fell as rising COVID-19 cases in Europe and a potential release of Japanese oil reserves raised concerns about both oversupply and weak demand.

In Abu Dhabi, the index, edged up 0.1%, helped by an increase in Alpha Dhabi Holding.

Beyond the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index gained 0.8%, as most of the stocks on the index rebounded, including top lender Commercial International Bank.

SAUDI ARABIA fell 2.7% to 11,172

ABU DHABI added 0.1% to 8,345

DUBAI down 2.6% to 3,172

QATAR dropped 0.8% to 11,811

EGYPT rose 0.8% to 11,359

BAHRAIN eased 0.4% to 1,788

OMAN down 0.1% to 4,061

KUWAIT lost 0.8% to 7,799.