2012-01-29 - AMEinfo.com | Saudi Arabia | Latest News - Saudi Arabia: The Riyadh-based Tadawul market gauge Tasi added 0.93% Saturday, closing at 6,537.12 points, as bellwether Sabic surged 2.45% on good prospects for emerging markets. Emirates NBD CIO Private Banking Gary Dugan said in his weekly commentary: "The news-flow in the emerging markets remains strong. Emerging markets equities and bonds have responded with some recent good returns. Chinese GDP growth and industrial confidence data came in ahead of expectations suggesting that fears of a hard landing by the Chinese economy are misplaced." Shares of dairy and food producer Almarai advanced 0.75% to reach SR100.75. Ealier in the day, Almarai reported a consolidated net income for the year 2011 of SR1.14bn, a decrease of 11.4% compared to the same period last year. Almarai said in a statement: "The reason for the decline in net income of 11.4% compared to 2010 is the impairment of the investment in Zain of SR160.2m. The fair value of the Zain equity investment has been significantly below cost for a prolonged period of time and management now considers the investment impaired." Nevertheless Almarai sales for 2011 amounted to SR7.95bn, an increase of 14.7% compared to the same period last year. Market breadth improved significantly as 105 shares advanced, while 30 declined.  

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