Saudi bourse’s quarterly profit falls on lower trading services, listing fees

DUBAI – Saudi Tadawul Group, the kingdom’s stock exchange operator, posted a 21.7% decline in first quarter net profit on Sunday on a slowdown in trading services and listing fees.

The bourse reported a net profit after tax and zakat of 140.6 million riyals ($37.48 million) in the three months to March 31, down from 179.6 million riyals in the same period last year, according to a bourse filing.

Tadawul went public in December, raising 3.78 billion riyals from investors in a listing that was 121 times oversubscribed.

The Saudi stock market is the Arab world’s largest. Its listed companies have a market capitalisation of nearly $3.2 trillion.

($1 = 3.7509 riyals)

(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by William Mallard)