Tadawul Shares Start Week Lower; Saudi's Operating Revenues Index Ticks Up in April
Saudi Exchange-traded shares closed Sunday lower as Iran's announcement regarding the reclosure of the Strait of Hormuz pushed the Tadawul All Share Index 0.40% in the red.The command center of Iran's Armed Forces disclosed that the operations of the Iranian and Omani coasts along the Strait will be closed again. The move was due to the US allegedly breaching its memorandum of understanding to end the war.The statement comes as US Vice President JD Vance and Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei met in Switzerland to iron out more details for the peace deal.Back at home, preliminary data demonstrated that the kingdom's operating revenue and employee compensation indices in April rose 10.6% and 10.1% year over year, respectively. Additionally, issued building permits surged annually by 28.2% to 7,356 in the reporting month from 5,740 a year ago."On a monthly basis, the Operating Revenues Index decreased by 3.8%, affected by a 19.1% decrease in manufacturing and mining and quarrying activities, a 1.5% decline in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles activities, a 2.5% decline in financial and insurance activities, and decreases of 1.5% and 4.9% in information and communication activities and transportation and storage activities, respectively," the General Authority for Statistics said in its report.On the corporate front, Alkhorayef Water and Power Technologies (SASE:2081) entered into 60-month contracts to clean the stormwater and surface water networks of the sub-municipalities of the Jeddah Amana Municipality in Saudi Arabia. Shares of the water and wastewater management company closed 0.42% lower.
