Saudi Arabia: The Saudi stock market indexes went down as the government reimposed stricter measures to limit the spread of COVID-19.

With the latest fall, the main stock index TASI dropped 1 percent to close at 11,199 points, while the parallel market Nomu was down nearly 3 percent to 25,952 points.

Saudi Arabia has announced that wearing masks and following social distancing guidelines will be mandatory in all indoor and outdoor events and activities from 07:00 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 30. 

Al Rajhi Bank dragged the main index down as its shares fell 1.4 percent to SR141 – with over SR701 million worth of shares changing hands intraday. This was followed by declines of most of the bourse’s major stocks.

The losers included Saudi Aramco, SABIC, and Alinma Bank, all of which closed lower at SR35.2 ($9.38), SR115, and SR23.9, respectively.Emaar EC led the gainers as it added 3 percent.

Next was Halwani Bros Co., whose share price rose 2.6 percent to SR90, after its board recommended cash dividends of SR70.7 million for the ongoing fiscal year.

Not only the Saudi bourse, but global stock markets saw declines on Wednesday as virus-related lockdowns and travel restrictions came into play.

Uncertainty around the omicron strain still lingers. It is spreading at a very fast pace and inducing government restrictions all over the world.

In the GCC region where the Kingdom led the downturn, the UAE’s main index DFMGI dropped 0.8 percent, followed by Oman’s MSX30 which closed 0.1 percent lower.
Bourses of Qatar and Kuwait ended flat, while Abu Dhabi and Bahrain’s main indexes went up by 0.7 and 0.2 percent, respectively.
Apart from the Gulf, the Egyptian index EGX30 lost 0.1 percent.

As many as 4.99 million cases were newly recorded across the globe from Dec. 20 to Dec. 26, AP News reported citing a weekly report by the UN health agency.

In energy trading, Brent crude lost 27 cents to $78.67 per barrel, while US WTI crude dropped 41 cents to $75.57 per barrel, as of 3:25 p.m. Saudi time.