Firms’ Outcomes Influence Saudi Stocks Trading

 An investor monitors a screen displaying stock information at the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
An investor monitors a screen displaying stock information at the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
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Firms’ Outcomes Influence Saudi Stocks Trading

 An investor monitors a screen displaying stock information at the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
An investor monitors a screen displaying stock information at the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser

Saudi Stock Exchange index closed last week at a level below 8,000 by 79 points, amid expectations that fiscal firms outcomes for Q3 would play an influential role in the performance of the index in the coming five weeks.

Saudi firms started revealing Q3 results last Tuesday, in a duration that lasts till Nov. 11.

This coincides with a time when foreign investment purchases reached a value of SAR18.3 billion (USD4.89 billion) last month – this value represents 28.3 percent of total purchases.

This way, foreign investment ownership jumped to 8.6 percent.

Further, Saudi Stock Exchange index closed the weekly trading with a relapse of 1.3 percent, i.e. 107 points. It ended at levels of 7,921 points, a drop that is attributed by specialists to the drop in oil prices last week.

Monetary liquidity marked a remarkable rise during last week, reaching around SAR14.9 billion (USD3.9 billion) compared to SAR9.8 billion (USD2.6 billion) in the past week. This registered a rise of 51.5 percent.

In this context, financial analyst Khaled Yahya expected that the Saudi firms would make sufficient profit for many traders and investors. He added that the profits might be close to the achieved results in Q2 of this year.

Yahya continued that the current indicators of the Saudi economy are encouraging and the private sector is a key pillar by which listed companies are an important part of it.



China Expands Visa-free Entry to More Countries in Bid to Boost Economy

Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
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China Expands Visa-free Entry to More Countries in Bid to Boost Economy

Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)
Shoppers with their purchased goods walk past a popular outdoor shopping mall in Beijing, on Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

China announced Friday that it would expand visa-free entry to citizens of nine more countries as it seeks to boost tourism and business travel to help revive a sluggish economy.
Starting Nov. 30, travelers from Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Estonia, Latvia and Japan will be able to enter China for up to 30 days without a visa, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
That will bring to 38 the number of countries that have been granted visa-free access since last year. Only three countries had visa-free access previously, and theirs had been eliminated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The permitted length of stay for visa-free entry is being increased from the previous 15 days, Lin said, and people participating in exchanges will be eligible for the first time. China has been pushing people-to-people exchange between students, academics and others to try to improve its sometimes strained relations with other countries, The Associated Press reported.
China strictly restricted entry during the pandemic and ended its restrictions much later than most other countries. It restored the previous visa-free access for citizens of Brunei and Singapore in July 2023, and then expanded visa-free entry to six more countries — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Malaysia — on Dec. 1 of last year.
The program has since been expanded in tranches. Some countries have announced visa-free entry for Chinese citizens, notably Thailand, which wants to bring back Chinese tourists.
For the three months from July through September this year, China recorded 8.2 million entries by foreigners, of which 4.9 million were visa-free, the official Xinhua News Agency said, quoting a Foreign Ministry consular official.