The currencies of most of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, are linked to dollars and generally conducted the footsteps of the US Central Bank’s policy, which exposes the region to a direct impact of the cash tightening there.
The Saudi index closed 0. 3 percent to end three sessions of losses, supported by a 3. 1 percent jump in the share of the Saudi National Bank.
The Saudi National Bank, the largest bank of the Kingdom, said on Friday that it had not received any information that might raise concerns about the governance of Credit Swiss Bank, pointing to its support for the transformation plan announced by the bank on October 27.
Al -Ahly Al -Ahly agreed to invest 1. 5 billion Swiss francs ($ 1. 59 billion) in the Swiss bank, and it is scheduled to acquire a stake of 9. 9 percent.
The share of the oil giant Aramco, Saudi Aramco, also rose 0. 6 percent.
Oil prices – a major catalyst for the Gulf financial markets – settled on a rise in the Friday session, but they fell on a weekly basis after health authorities in China have reduced some strict restrictions related to the country -19, which strengthened hopes in improving economic activity and demand in the largest oil importer Raw in the world.
However, the share of the Saudi Tadawal Group, the stock exchange and the ownership of it, fell 9. 9 percent to 188.
8 riyals after the public investment fund in the Kingdom sold a ten percent in the company through a secondary offering to shares.
The fund completed the sale of 12 million shares through the process of building an accelerated orders record at a price of 191 riyals per share, to drop nine percent from the previous closure price, and raised 2. 3 billion riyals (612 million dollars).
In Qatar, the index increased 0. 4 percent, driven by 1.
2 percent in the share of Qatar Petrochemical Industries Company and 1. 4 percent in Qatar Fuel Company.
Outside the Gulf region, the leadership index of the Egyptian Stock Exchange rose 1. 9, amid most of the shares on the index..
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