8 things you need to know on Tadawul today

Here are a few things you need to know as Saudi stocks start trading on Sunday.

1) Al Rajhi Bank has denied on its Twitter account the news that the Saudi Public Investment Fund has acquired a 25 percent stake in the bank. The lender also denied holding an extraordinary general assembly meeting to change its name.

2) The Saudi British Bank (SABB) completed the acquisition of HSBC’s combined 32.5 percent shareholding in SABB Takaful on Thursday, after obtaining the required regulatory approvals, the bank said in a bourse statement.

3) Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has fined Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) for misuse of authority in a number of operations involving employees’ incentives over the past years, it said in a statement.

4) Al Sagr Cooperative Insurance Co. (Al Sagr Insurance) has signed a contract to provide medical insurance services for the employees of Maharah Human Resources Co. The contracts’ value is expected to exceed 5 percent of Al Sagr’s gross written premiums.

5) Saudi Cement Co.’s board of directors has appointed Mohamed El Khereiji as vice chairman, the company said in a bourse statement.

6) All life insurance products will be exempt from the five percent value-added tax (VAT) that will be applied in Saudi Arabia starting January 2018.

7) Nearly 95 percent of the 200 people detained as part of Saudi’s recent anti-corruption investigation have agreed to settlements, which require them to hand over cash or shares of their business to the state treasury in order to avoid trial, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told The New York Times.

8) Crude oil prices closed last week on a positive note, with Brent crude up 0.5 percent to $63.86/bbl while WTI crude rose 1.6 percent to $58.95/bbl.

Write to Nadeshda Zareen at nadeshda.zareen@argaamplus.com