Gulf Cooperation Council financial officials met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

Story

The Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange began the week Saturday with its largest decline in four years, a reaction to the world’s tumbling markets and oil prices, an economist said.

The index for all stocks finished the day down 536 points, or 8.7 percent, and several sectors dropped almost 10 percent, according to the Web site for the exchange, known as Tadawul. Saturday is the first day of the week according to the Saudi Arabian calendar.

But there’s little reason to worry about the drop, according to John Sfakianakis, chief economist for the Saudi British Bank. The precipitous drop in stock values is probably related to the tumbling U.S., European and Asian markets, as well as the falling price of oil, the economist said.

“It shouldn’t be a benchmark for the well-being of the economy,” Sfakianakis said.

After the markets closed, the state-run news service reported that King Abdullah announced that he would deposit 10 billion riyals ($2.67 billion) into the Saudi Bank of Credit and Saving. The “royal gift” will be used for loans to citizens, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Source CNN.com

Commentary

Maybe its time I became an economic analysis and fix this mess. So why is the stock in Saudi down? Its simple as it has nothing to do with economics. The Saudi stock market should be moved to Las Vegas as it is the best gambling system in the world. I estimate that more than 50% of Saudi adults are in the stock market playing it in hopes of quick riches. Almost no body in the Saudi stock market is in it for the long haul they are in it for now and only now to sell and buy and of course gamble with their money. In my entire life I’ve never seen a company during good economic times issuing profits that exceeded analysis expectations with a positive look to the future and end up with their stock going down except in Saudi Arabia! This is a game and not a stock market. Oh and the Saudi stock market lives on rumors and not facts who cares about facts the taxi driver should know better than the expert. I think they should just close the market and be done with it. Oh and not to forget all the loans people got from banks to enter the stock market, who gets a loan to enter the stock market? Saudis of course who else!

On another note am glad to see that the Saudi Bank of Credit and Savings is getting some much needed cash to keep operating during the current fiscal year as it has helped a lot of people. Now if we would only unlink our currency from the dollar we would be great.