[2008-06-17]  BCI shares soar 4 times on debut Discuss
Basic Chemical Industries Co. (BCI) made its Saudi stock market debut with a bang yesterday. The SR30 BCI shares, which are trading in the Industrial Investment category, opened at SR120 and fell to SR110 during the trading, before closing nearly four times higher at SR115. Over SR1.53 billion worth of BCI shares changed hands yesterday.

The stock market was also in positive territory yesterday. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed 95.10 points higher at 9,782.19 points. The index is still down 11.38 percent or over 1,256 points down so far this year. Petrochemical stocks dominated the trading. Shares in Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) gained 2.53 percent to SR151.75. National Industrialization Co. shares surged by 5.19 percent to SR40.50, Advanced Polypropylene Co. by 4.54 percent to SR57.50, Sahara Petrochemical by 3.86 percent to SR47 and Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co. by 3.33 percent to SR62 yesterday.

In the Telecommunication and Information Technology sector, shares in Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) fell slightly to SR62.50 but shares in Etihad Etisalat increased to SR54.75 yesterday.

The top gainer yesterday was Gulf Union Cooperative Insurance Co. Its shares jumped 9.48 percent to SR31.75. The stock market turnover was SR9.98 billion yesterday. Meanwhile, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) has approved Middle East Specialized Cables Co.’s (MESC’s) request to increase its capital from SR320 million to SR400 million through issuing one bonus share for every four shares owned by the shareholders who are registered in the shareholders register at the closing of trading on the extraordinary general assembly day.

Such increase will be paid by transferring an amount of SR80 million from the retained earnings to the company’s capital, consequently, increasing company’s outstanding shares from 32 million shares to 40 million shares, by an increase of 8 million shares.

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