Saudi Arabia: Tadawul Stock Index Loses 20% In 2 Weeks

by dvolatility

Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All Share Index lost 20% since February 12, 2011. The thought of contagion risk from the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, as well as protests in Bahrain, Yemen and Oman, probably spooked investors holding Saudi Arabian stocks (FT: Political unrest sparks ‘panic selling’). There are also protest fears. "Activists have set up Facebook pages calling for protests in Saudi Arabia on March 11 and 20." (Reuters). Recently King Abdullah promised his country a $36 benefit package to "address inflation and housing, expand social security benefits, and ease unemployment and education costs" (CSMonitor). I embedded a Twitter search widget with the #SaudiArabia hashtag below just in case anything happens. A disruption to Saudi oil supplies would spike oil prices.

Saudi Arabia's 5Y Credit Default Swap spread closed up 1.65% at 140 basis points, according to CMA Datavision.  Credit default swap spreads measure the cost to insure underlying debt from default (a credit rating that trades). On January 30, Saudi Arabia CDS was at 109.83 basis points, so it's up 27% in a month. Check out the charts below of the Tadawul All Share Index. It closed at 5323.27.

SASEIDX (Tadawul All Share Index) 3-month (Direct Link: Bloomberg)

SASEIDX (Tadawul All Share Index) 1-year (Direct Link: Bloomberg)

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