Saudi Arabia blue chip stocks fell on Thursday with the Tadawul All Share Index down 1.22 percent.
Banks have led the fall with Al Rajhi bank down 2.08 percent, and NCB down 1.03 percent. Riyad Bank and Samba Financial Group are also down by 0.78 and 2.67 percent respectively.
Petrochemical manufacturer SABIC also fell, down 0.4 percent, while Saudi Telecom Company was up 0.8 percent.
On Wednesday Saudi Arabia completed its inclusion in the MSCI emerging markets index, bringing the weight of Saudi equities in the index to 2.8 percent.
Equity markets frequently rally after an upgrade announcement and then begin to retract following the upgrade. In a recent report, the Institute of International Finance (IFF) said that this pattern has been repeated in the UAE and Pakistan. The IFF added that it doesn’t believe a major correction will occur, however.
