Today, Tuesday, the Saudi stock market posted its biggest daily gain in nearly two months, driven by gains in banking sector shares ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates. The TASI general index closed up 0.7% at 10,699 points, mainly supported by a rise in bank shares, notably Al Rajhi Bank, which rose 2.1%. The share prices of “Aramco” and “Nasionale Bank” also rose, while “SABIC” and “ACWA Power” fell. Yousef Yousef, director of financial data development at the “Arqaam” portal, pointed out that there are positive indicators for the market’s performance in the next phase after it held above 10,600 points over the past five sessions, during which it declined only once. Short-term speculation Mary Salem, a financial analyst at Al-Sharq, points to the existence of short-term speculative trading in light of a state of anticipation and caution ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision tomorrow on interest rates, which she believes will be lower. She added, “The positioning for the end of the year has not yet started in the Saudi market. Institutions previously exited, and now they have the opportunity to enter during the next two weeks.” Liquidity awaits positive news. Hisham Abu Jamea, senior advisor at Naif Al Rajhi Investment, for his part, says that the market needs more announcements and reassurances from officials and companies to improve investor confidence to pump in more investments. He added during an intervention with Al-Sharq: “Liquidity is available, but it needs incentives and news. When Bloomberg published news (about the amendment of the foreign ownership policy in September), the value of transactions in the next session jumped to more than ten billion riyals.” The value of liquidity reached 4 billion riyals in today’s session, compared to an average of more than five billion riyals at the beginning of this year. Small gains for the newcomer: CGS shares ended their first trading session on the stock exchange with a slight increase at 10.08 riyals. This is the third listing on the market since the beginning of this month, after “Shree Trading”, which is currently trading below the offer price, and “Comprehensive Path” for Education, which is trading at 22.7 riyals, a rise of more than 16% from the offer price. Ikrami Abdullah, chief financial analyst at Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper, did not express his optimism about the performance of CGS shares in light of the general decline in the market and the poor appetite for risk, which affected most of the shares listed on the market during the current year. During an interview with Al-Sharq, he added that the other reason for optimism is “the company’s situation itself. The company’s revenue fell by about 15% in the first half due to the decline in the company’s basic sectors, as well as a decrease in net profit with the increase in financing costs.”