Black Monday struck the Saudi stock market, with its main index “TASI” dropping more than 400 points at the beginning of the session to nearly 11,300 points (-3.6%).
This comes amid a decline in several leading stocks, led by “Aramco,” which closed down more than 1%.
Panic
Global stock markets saw sharp declines in a scene reminiscent of the “Black Monday” collapse of Japanese stocks in 1987.
These declines affected Asian, European, and Arab markets, while their American counterparts continued bleeding points in pre-opening trading yesterday.
So what
The “TASI” index opened Sunday’s trading with a decline of 2.7%, dropping to just above 11,700 points.
This was before reducing its losses to 2.4% by the end of the session, marking the “lowest closing level” since mid-July.
Some context
The wave of stock selling intensified on Monday amid growing fears of a delay by the Federal Reserve in supporting the slowing American economy.
This prompted investors to seek safe havens in bonds, as concerns grew about the United States, “the world’s largest economy,” heading towards an economic recession.
Many are also worried about tensions in the Middle East, with reports suggesting that Iran might strike Israel.
This would be in retaliation for the assassinations of officials from “Hezbollah” and “Hamas.”
Now what
Traders are eagerly awaiting the second-quarter results of the oil giant “Aramco” on Tuesday morning, to assess its impact on the local market performance “Tadawul.”
