Investment funds licensed by the Capital Market Authority recorded net sales on the Saudi stock market at the end of last week, August 12, for the second consecutive week.

According to data from the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), investment funds posted net sales of 141.1 million riyals last week, following net sales of 307.4 million riyals the week before.

Last week’s net sales by investment funds followed a week in which they made total purchases of 858.6 million riyals, compared with sales of 999.67 million riyals.

According to the monitoring report, this marks the first time since mid-May that investment funds have recorded net sales for two consecutive weeks, with net sales over the two weeks totaling approximately 448.5 million riyals, after recording sales of 1.99 billion riyals and purchases of 1.54 billion riyals.

Since the beginning of the year, investment fund trading has recorded net purchases of 1.95 billion riyals, following purchases of approximately 33.37 billion riyals and sales of 31.42 billion riyals.

The market remains on an upward trajectory, with the general index posting gains of over 30 percent since the start of the year, while the “MT30” index has risen by more than 32 percent during the period; the market remains up by more than 90 percent from its March 2020 low.
Meanwhile, the total value of investment funds“ holdings in the local stock market reached approximately 274.67 billion riyals as of the end of August 12, compared to approximately 269.2 billion riyals in the previous week.

Compared to their holdings at the end of last year, this represents an increase of approximately 29.7 percent, as holdings then stood at 211.79 billion riyals. This brings the holdings of domestic investment funds in the main market to a record high, based on data available since 2015.

Investment funds” ownership of free-float shares stood at 11.53 percent at the end of last week, while it accounted for approximately 2.79 percent of total issued shares.

As for the rest of the investors in the Saudi market, individuals across all categories held 41.7 percent of free-floating shares at the end of last week, valued at 804.7 billion riyals, Gulf investors held approximately 50.22 billion riyals, equivalent to 2.14 percent, while foreign investors held approximately 14.3 percent of free-float shares, valued at 289.4 billion riyals.