Not one to waste a crisis

1

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: 3Q budget performance shows non-oil carrying the revenue load

Good morning, folks. Today’s news cycle is, in many ways, about how Saudi exporters are making more from less, as pricing offsets the burden of lower volumes and impeded shipping.

This morning’s earnings batch illustrates that, starting with oil giant Aramco, which posted a strong quarter even as its facilities came under attack and production fell. Advanced Petrochemical’s netbacks, Umm Al Qura’s selling prices, and SAL’s pricing mix all held or improved, while the companies that reported lower bottom lines were impacted by volumes that couldn’t move.

The domestic private sector is the one place with no pricing power left. October’s PMI eased while output accelerated, suggesting firms are working through what they already had on the books. Input cost inflation reached its highest level since June, and the ability to pass it on fell to a nine-month low, so competition is being settled through discounting and absorbed in margins.



AI in the Gulf is about more than data centers and chips; it’s changing how people work, how schools teach, and how companies run.

EnterpriseAM AI + Innovation reports on all of it with the same sourcing and skepticism EnterpriseAM brings to every story.

Sign up here to get it every Tuesday and Thursday.

WEATHER- Saudi Arabia is forecast to see above-average rainfall and temperatures around 2°C above seasonal norms from this month through January 2027, according to the National Center for Meteorology (pdf). Rainfall could range from moderate to heavy in several regions.

Oil down, deficit up

3Q budget performance numbers are out, and non-oil is doing the heavy lifting on the revenue side: Saudi Arabia recorded an SAR 84.3 bn deficit in the third quarter as oil receipts fell 23% y-o-y, pulling total revenue down 4% despite a 20% increase in non-oil income, according to a Finance Ministry report (pdf). Non-oil revenue reached SAR 142.6 bn, accounting for 55% of total receipts, while spending fell 4% to SAR 343.4 bn. The 9M deficit now stands at SAR 244.3 bn.

^^ We’ll dig into what the revenue mix and spending trends mean for the Kingdom’s fiscal trajectory in tomorrow’s issue.

War Watch

The Houthis continue to target airports and military infrastructure, claiming to have hit Dammam Airport with two drones, an early-warning radar in Jizan with a drone, and a military transport aircraft at Jizan Airport. Saudi air defenses also intercepted and destroyed a drone over Makkah, after downing two more around Riyadh, the Saudi-led coalition said.

The Houthis also escalated their strikes in Yemen, claiming to have struck Saudi-aligned forces inside Yemen, firing ballistic missiles at positions east of Al Jawf governorate and in the Ras Al Aara and Al Mudharaba areas. They said dozens were killed and wounded, including commanders.

Saudi forces strike in Yemen, Houthis say: The militia said that Saudi warplanes carried out 109 airstrikes on civilian sites in Saada, Taiz, Lahij, Al Jawf, and Hodeidah, putting the total number of Saudi airstrikes and missiles since the escalation began at 3.9k.

Kicked down the road

The Asian Football Confederation pushed back the Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia from 7 January to 23 December 2027, following consultations with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, according to an AFC statement. The AFC said the decision followed extensive discussions in light of current developments and related logistical considerations.

The Saudi Pro League will also reschedule Matchweek 13 of the Roshn Saudi League, with new dates to be announced after reviewing the 2026-27 fixture calendar, according to a statement.

The Embassy of Japan in Saudi Arabia has also called off the Japan Festival, which was scheduled for this month, saying it was putting “the safety of all our visitors and participants above all else.” In a post on X yesterday, the embassy said it would begin preparations for next year’s festival, promising “an even more vibrant” event to “further deepen the friendship between Japan and Saudi Arabia.”

REMEMBER- The Saudi sports and entertainment calendar took a serious hit due to the ongoing regional conflicts, with the Six Kings Slam tennis tournament being pushed to December and the Dakar Rally pulling out of the Kingdom altogether. The Joy Awards, Red Sea Film Festival, and Soundstorm (MDLBEAST) have also all been pushed or canceled.

***

You’re reading EnterpriseAM Saudi, your essential daily roundup of business, economics, and must-read news about Saudi, delivered straight to your inbox. We’re out Sunday through Thursday by 7am Riyadh time.

EnterpriseAM Saudi is available without charge thanks to the generous support of our friends at Tas’heel and Hassan Allam Properties.

Want to send us a story idea, request coverage, ask for a correction, or otherwise get in touch? Reach out to us on [email protected].

DID YOU KNOW that we also cover MENA+, Egypt, the UAE, and the MENA logistics industry?

Were you forwarded this email? Tap or click here to get your own copy of EnterpriseAM Saudi delivered every weekday.

***

The big story abroad

Americans are voting to decide who controls Congress in the 2026 midterms. To take both chambers from Republicans, Democrats need to flip four Senate seats and three House seats. Polls have closed in more than half the country, including most states with competitive Senate races. The newswire expects results to come in between 6pm and 1am Eastern Standard Time.

Nvidia tightens the screws on Chinese cloud customers: Nvidia has told its data center partners they must sell at least 51% of their cloud services to non-Chinese companies, the Financial Times reports, citing five unnamed sources. The move further limits China’s access to advanced US chips as the AI race between the two countries heats up. There were no such limits before. Nvidia’s sales and regional teams passed on the rules verbally instead of putting them in writing, and the rules apply to clients worldwide, not just in Asia, though only to new contracts.

Hackers hit European supermarket fridges again: Supermarkets in eight European countries are rushing to upgrade their systems after hackers cranked up fridge and freezer temperatures on Monday, forcing stores to throw out large amounts of food. The attack mirrored one that hit dozens of French supermarkets three weeks ago. The EU’s cybersecurity agency called for closer cooperation and faster information-sharing across the bloc.

This publication is proudly sponsored by

Easier life with Tasheel
The Luxury of Certainty
2

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Aramco rides an oil shock it is still fighting

Saudi Aramco is benefiting from the same global oil crisis that has disrupted its production, damaged its facilities, and forced it to rethink how it gets crude to market. Higher oil prices and record refining margins drove stronger 3Q earnings at the world’s largest oil exporter, even as the conflict constrained its operations. Net income rose 34.5% y-o-y to USD 36.3 bn in 3Q 2026 on a revenue increase of 20.3% to USD 123.8 bn, according to its earnings release (pdf).

The biggest buoy? Oil prices. Aramco’s average realized crude price climbed to USD 95.2 a barrel from USD 70 a year earlier, though it slipped from USD 108 in 2Q. That helped soften the blow from lower volumes: total liquids production averaged 8.7 mn bbl / d against 10.8 mn a year earlier. This came as the war’s blockades, strikes, and tensions continued restricting output and shipments.

A flatter factor also helped: Aramco’s reported earnings were lifted by the sale of its 50% stake in Malaysia’s PRefChem refining and petrochemicals ventures to Petronas. CFO Ziad Al Murshed told analysts the disposal added around USD 7 bn to unadjusted net income in the quarter. Adjusted net income, which strips that out, rose a more modest 9% to USD 31.2 bn, still edging past the USD 30.7 bn median analyst estimate.

Refining carried the rest: Aramco’s downstream division generated a record USD 10.3 bn in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT), up 234% y-o-y and more than USD 4 bn above the previous quarter. A shortage of refined products, particularly diesel and jet fuel, caused a sharp rise in global refining margins. Routing 51% of its crude into its own downstream operations allowed Aramco to capture more of those margins than it could from crude exports alone. Upstream was less fortunate: adjusted EBIT fell 9% y-o-y to USD 46.8 bn on lower volumes.

But emergency measures can only go so far. CEO Amin Nasser told investors on Tuesday’s earnings call that the global oil supply shortfall remains substantial despite emergency stock releases and alternative export routes, with inventories running low and possibly needing years to rebuild. “The world is starting the ninth month now of a historically unprecedented supply shock,” Nasser said. More than 3 bn bbl of liquids supply have been lost since the conflict began, with alternative routes, strategic reserve releases, and demand management narrowing the cumulative deficit to around 2 bn barrels, he said. The rest has been covered mostly by commercial inventory withdrawals and reduced consumption — measures Nasser said cannot run indefinitely. Even if normal flows resumed immediately, refilling depleted inventories could take up to two years.

Shipping is the other bottleneck. Longer voyages, tanker shortages, and attacks on vessels have cut the effective capacity of the global oil tanker fleet by around 40%, Nasser said. Rerouting has reduced fleet efficiency by about 25%, with attacks accounting for a further 15%, and freight costs have risen to roughly 15 times pre-conflict levels.

Aramco kept crude moving where it could, leaning on its East-West Pipeline, Mediterranean export links, and ship-to-ship transfers outside the Strait of Hormuz. Those measures lifted production by around 1.1 mn bbl / d from 2Q, and September was the strongest month since the conflict began.

The nine-month read: The bottom line expanded 34.2% y-o-y to USD 101.5 bn and revenue rose 15.2% y-o-y to USD 359.5 bn on the higher oil price.

Spending and payouts stayed on plan

The dividend remains covered. Freecashflow rose to USD 28.2 bn from USD 23.6 bn a year earlier, comfortably covering the quarterly base dividend of USD 22 bn and taking 9M base dividends to USD 65.7 bn — the payouts that fund a large share of the Saudi state budget. The dividend rose 3.5% y-o-y and is due on 25 November.

The balance sheet also improved. Gearing fell to 5.5% at the end of September from 6.2% three months earlier, while Aramco had repurchased 83.8 mn of its own shares worth USD 610 mn under the buyback approved in March.

And Aramco kept its 2026 capital investment guidance at USD 50-55 bn, even after the Humain contribution and the cost of restoring damaged infrastructure. Nasser said lower-than-planned output had trimmed some spending needs, letting the company fit the extra costs inside its existing budget. Capital spending is still expected to peak around the middle of the decade, with 2027 guidance due in March.

What it’s building with the money

Aramco kept investing beyond the core through the quarter, advancing the Jafurah gas development, the Fadhili expansion and the Dammam phase-two project, part of a push to lift sales-gas capacity by roughly 80% by 2030. More recently, the Zuluf crude increment started up in October and is expected to reach processing capacity of up to 600k barrels a day by year-end.

IN CONTEXT- The gas buildout has an oil payoff. Because Jafurah produces non-associated gas, Aramco can add gas without pumping more crude — flexibility that helped shield domestic supply when the Kingdom curtailed oil output during the conflict. The program is also meant to free up crude the Kingdom now burns for power, displacing about 500k barrels a day at peak that could instead be exported. We broke down the interplay here.

That push now extends to AI... Aramco just took a 49% stake in PIF’s AI firm Humain, investing roughly USD 2.6 bn. “The transaction will further accelerate Humain’s growth and advance its full range of AI capabilities globally, with PIF and Aramco contributing AI assets, capabilities, and talent,” Aramco told EnterpriseAM. On the earnings call, Nasser said the investment would give Aramco access to computing infrastructure and AI models, create new demand for Saudi gas and electricity, and open fresh revenue streams.

…and minerals: The oil giant signed a hard-rock mining JV with Maaden targeting copper and rare earths across nearly 10% of the Kingdom’s land. It also contracted Nesr for a lithium demonstration project.

Looking ahead

A bigger Hormuz bypass is on the table. Aramco is carrying out engineering work to expand its East-West Pipeline, working to lift east-to-west capacity beyond 7 mn bbl / d, Nasser said. Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said last month that the Kingdom aims to reach 10 mn bbl / d, a target Nasser did not confirm. “We are looking at other routes, but until we get … to final investment decisions, we are not going to announce what we are doing,” he told analysts. The economics have already shifted: Nasser said the pipeline’s entire original construction cost was effectively recovered in about 15 days during the current disruption.

If needed, Aramco can ramp up fast: The company can restore output to pre-conflict levels within days and reach its maximum sustainable capacity (MSC) of 12 mn bbl / d in under three weeks, Nasser said, and it can go beyond that ceiling. However, “this is not for the company to decide on expanding the MSC,” he clarified. “It is for the government.”

What to watch: Whether Aramco can sustain higher production and export volumes while attacks, shipping restrictions and rising freight costs keep complicating deliveries. The company expects the oil market to stay tight even if the conflict eases, with depleted inventories adding to crude demand over the next two years. For Aramco, that leaves an unusual combination of opportunity and risk: higher prices and refining margins are supporting earnings, while getting enough oil to market remains the biggest obstacle to capturing the full benefit.

3

ECONOMY

Non-oil growth slows in October as export orders fall and cost pressures climb

A margin squeeze and softening demand pulled Saudi’s non-oil headline lower in October, even as output growth picked up, the latest Riyad Bank PMI (pdf) shows. The headline index eased to 54.0 in October from 55.3 in September, which marks a seventh consecutive month of expansion and the second-highest level since February. Output accelerated; the headline cooled on slower growth in new orders, hiring and purchasing.

Thinner pricing power is eating into margins. Input cost inflation hit its highest level since June while firms’ ability to raise their own prices fell to a nine-month low, as competition forced discounting and left companies absorbing more of the increase.

Much of that pressure is coming from outside the Kingdom. Export orders fell for an eighth straight month, and faster than before, with almost a quarter of firms reporting lower foreign sales amid shipping disruption, higher freight and insurance costs, and stiffer competition. The same disruption is lifting input bills — purchase prices rose at the quickest pace in six months on freight, ins., raw material, and energy costs, and suppliers’ delivery times improved only marginally, the smallest improvement since April, with some firms turning to local inputs to get around slowed shipments.

Output itself picked up. Business activity accelerated over the month, which firms put down to improving demand and stronger sales and marketing. New orders kept rising, though growth softened from September and ran below trend, with domestic sales carrying order books. Underlying demand “remains positive but is becoming more selective,” Riyad Bank Chief Economist Naif Al Ghaith said.

Firms are still cautiously adding capacity: Non-oil firms added staff for a fourth month running, purchasing rose at close to the year’s fastest pace, and companies accumulated input stocks as a buffer against supply disruption, while backlogs rose for a second month. The renewed increase in outstanding business, purchasing and inventories suggests firms are “maintaining their readiness to accommodate future demand,” Al Ghaith said.

Confidence, though, stayed muted: Firms’ expectations for output over the coming year were mildly positive but eased relative to the series average, with geopolitical uncertainty weighing on sentiment.

4

DEBT WATCH

PIF raises USD 3 bn in Sace-backed credit tied to buying from Italian suppliers

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) has raised USD 3 bn equivalent in credit facilities guaranteed by Italy’s export credit agency Sace, with the funding tied to expanding procurement from Italian suppliers across its portfolio companies, according to a press release. A syndicate of 25 international banks provided a USD 1.78 bn tranche and a EUR 1.035 bn green tranche, with proceeds from the EUR tranche going to eligible projects under PIF’s Green Finance Framework. Neither PIF nor Sace responded to EnterpriseAM’s request for comment in time for dispatch.

This is the second time in four months PIF has traded procurement access for guaranteed funding. It signed MoUs worth USD 24.5 bn with the IFC, MIGA, and US EXIM to support co-financing, guarantees, and procurement by its portfolio companies. Its 2026-2030 strategy emphasizes a broader mix of funding sources, including retained earnings and private investment at home and abroad. Export credit agencies lend on better terms than the market when the borrower commits to buying from their exporters, which gives PIF cheaper funding and suppliers in those markets a route into its portfolio.

PIF has deployed EUR 98 bn in Europe since 2017, and these facilities form part of its broader funding strategy built on partnerships with export credit agencies in priority markets, as it continues exploring joint ventures and procurement options.

5

EARNINGS WATCH

A fresh batch of results: Kingdom Holding, SAL, Advanced Petrochemical, Bawan, Masr, and more

Volumes, not prices: The theme across today’s batch of earnings is that pricing held up almost everywhere — Advanced Petrochemical’s netbacks rose 20%, Umm Al Qura sold at higher prices, SAL improved its pricing and service mix — and the companies whose earnings fell lost them because they couldn’t actually move their product.

KHC’s bottom line falls despite revenue growth

Kingdom Holding Company’s (KHC) net income declined 61.7% y-o-y to SAR 304.2 mn in 3Q, according to a Tadawul filing. Revenue, meanwhile, increased 36% to SAR 850.3 mn, driven by higher hotel and other operating revenue and increased dividend income. The bottom line was impacted by “a one-off reversal of impairment on equity accounted investee recorded in the prior-year quarter,” as well as higher costs, tax payments, and Zakat.

The company’s 9M 2026 bottom line was also down 44.4% y-o-y to SAR 906.3 mn, while revenue edged up 3.3% to SAR 2.06 bn.

Advanced Petrochemical: Barely in the black

Advanced Petrochemical’s net income declined 94.4% y-o-y to SAR 4 mn in 3Q, according to a Tadawul filing. Revenue also fell 4.3% to SAR 974 mn, and there was a 20% drop in sales volumes due to logistics disruptions amid the regional tensions, despite a 12% increase in production and a 20% rise in netback prices, the company said.

Margins come under pressure: Gross income fell 17.9% y-o-y to SAR 193 mn, while operating income declined 32.4% to SAR 123 mn. The company attributed the decline to an 8% increase in propane prices, the recognition of depreciation and fixed costs and financial charges for a full three months compared with just two and half months in the same period last year.

The first nine months saw higher sales, but a weaker bottom line: The company reported a net loss of SAR 65 mn from SAR 225 mn in the same period last year, while revenue increased 23.6% to SAR 2.9 bn.

Weaker industrial sales hit Bawan’s bottom line

Bawan reported a 37.6% y-o-y decline in net income to SAR 14.9 mn in 3Q, according to a Tadawul filing. Revenue also fell 19.9% to SAR 872.7 mn, driven by lower sales volumes in electrical industries, metal industries, and wood products sectors, as well as lower revenue recognized from ongoing oil and gas projects.

9M told a similar story, as net income fell 41.1% to SAR 120.8 mn, while revenue declined 3.1% to SAR 2.87 bn compared with the same period last year. The decline reflects a one-off accounting gain of SAR 126.5 mn recognized a year earlier following the Petronash acquisition. Lower income in electrical and wood products, higher purchase price allocation (PPA) amortization and administrative expenses also weighed on earnings, partly offset by stronger oil and gas, metal and plastics performance, alongside lower finance and zakat costs.

Outlook: The company expects to record around SAR 23 mn in PPA amortization expenses in 4Q, including the full amortization of the remaining SAR 16 mn contract order backlog, according to its earnings (pdf). The quarterly charges are expected to fall from 2027, to around SAR 7 mn, as amortization shifts to the remaining acquired intangible assets and property, plant and equipment.

Umm Al Qura’s earnings pick up

Umm Al Qura for Development and Construction posted a 29.1% y-o-y increase in net income to SAR 666.9 mn in 3Q, according to a Tadawul filing. Revenue also rose 29.4% to SAR 1.64 bn driven by higher selling prices. 9M 2026 net income increased 1.6% y-o-y to SAR 927.9 mn and revenue grew 8.1% to SAR 2.63 bn.

SAL’s logistics operations supported its earnings growth

SAL Saudi Logistics Services’ net income rose 28.2% y-o-y to SAR 231.9 mn in 3Q on record revenue up 37.5% at SAR 579.3 mn, according to a Tadawul disclosure and an earnings release (pdf). Cargo ground handling provided SAR 504 mn of that, rising 35% as activity recovered from the regional disruption, while logistics revenue rose 53.1%. Nine-month net income rose 16.9% to SAR 579.9 mn on revenue up 28.2% at SAR 1.54 bn, with earnings trailing revenue on expansion investment, higher finance costs and a SAR 26 mn operating loss in logistics.

Dividends: The company approved the distribution of SAR 173.6 mn in dividends for 3Q 2026 on 24 November, which is equivalent to SAR 2.17 per share, according to a separate disclosure.

6

ALSO ON OUR RADAR

Miahona closes Sha’s Water acquisition

Miahona has closed its acquisition of Sha’s Water, picking up a Riyadh distribution network. The listed water-services firm is paying SAR 95 mn for 100% of Sha’s Water Services, now a wholly owned subsidiary, with a further SAR 7.7 mn earn-out tied to the unit’s performance, according to a Tadawul filing. The transaction, cleared by the Competition Authority in September, pushes Miahona deeper into supplying water to commercial, residential, and industrial customers in Riyadh, and will start showing in its accounts from 4Q.

Riyadh Development sheds non-core land

Riyadh Development is selling land it won’t build on and leaning harder on its malls. CFO Mohammed Al-Kulaib told Al Arabiya the company is working to divest 200k-300k sqm of non-strategic land from a portfolio above 1.3 mn sqm, with some of the impact possibly landing as early as 4Q. The rest is mostly held for development, as the company leans on recurring income from its centers and markets and a project pipeline it puts near SAR 9 bn.

Alba eyes Eastern Province solar

Bahrain’s Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) is eyeing Saudi solar — as a buyer, and maybe an investor. Alba wants to be a major offtaker from a potential solar project in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and would take an equity stake if the opportunity arises, chairman Khalid Al-Rumaihi told Asharq Business. He stopped short of naming a partner or linking it to the up-to-2.8 GW Eastern Province plant Acwa Power and Bahrain’s Bapco Energies agreed to build last December, whose output is earmarked for Bahrain.

7

PLANET FINANCE

Regional war expected to wipe 150 bn cbm off LNG supply through 2030, keeping the market tight into 2027

The regional war is expected to wipe 150 bn cbm off global LNG supply between 2026 and 2030, equivalent to 15% of the new liquefaction capacity expected to come online over that period, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday in its Global Gas Security Review (pdf). Most of the losses will come in 2026 and 2027, delaying the wave of new supply that was expected to ease a tight global gas market. Global LNG supply is on track to fall 3%, or nearly 20 bn cbm, this year — its biggest annual decline on record.

That’s a reversal from where the agency started the year. In January, the IEA expected a sharp rise in LNG supply to ease market fundamentals in 2026. Falling demand is what has kept the market from going short, because consumption is set to fall faster than supply this year, by our read. Global gas consumption is expected to fall around 1.5% this year, marking its third annual decline since 2020, according to the IEA. Demand in Asia Pacific is forecast to drop 1.5% as higher LNG prices push power producers toward coal, while Europe is expected to see a 3% decline as industrial consumers cut back. In the Middle East, damage to production and processing facilities is expected to drive a 10% drop in consumption. Higher prices have also priced some buyers out of the spot market altogether. Pakistan, for example, twice rejected a September LNG cargo priced at nearly USD 27 / mmBtu.

And reopening the Strait of Hormuz won’t bring Gulf LNG supply back to pre-war levels overnight. Missile strikes in March damaged two production trains at Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility, taking 12.8 mn tons of annual capacity offline, or roughly 17% of the country’s total. QatarEnergy’s latest assessment, cited by the IEA, is that it could take three years to restore operations — a cumulative loss of more than 50 bn cbm of LNG supply. The first train of its North Field East expansion is now expected to come online in the first half of 2027, a delay from its previous end-2026 target. Meanwhile, the four LNG liquefaction projects that reached final investment decisions since March, all in North America, won’t start production until 2030 at the earliest.

Europe could be competing for significantly more LNG next summer. EU gas storage stood at 75% at the end of October, below the bloc’s 80% minimum fill target, itself a derogation from the regulation’s 90% and its lowest level since 2013, according to the IEA. The agency estimates the EU would need to inject 57-83 bn cbm next summer to bring storage back to average levels by November 2027, compared with a five-year average of 50 bn cbm. The market is already reflecting that pressure, with May 2027 contracts trading above those for November 2027 and the spread recently hitting a record high, Bloomberg reports. That reverses the usual seasonal pricing pattern, where summer gas trades at a markdown to winter.

Egypt, meanwhile, is becoming increasingly exposed to the LNG market. The country’s LNG imports rose 70% y-o-y, or 6.5 bn cbm, in January-October, with net imports exceeding domestic gas production for the first time in July. Tenders signed before the war helped Egypt avoid the worst of the summer price increases, but that protection was expected to fade toward year-end, Kpler’s JP Lacouture told EnterpriseAM in September.

The higher prices are now starting to bite. The government has asked suppliers to defer five of the 15 LNG cargoes scheduled for November after the cost per shipment rose above USD 100 mn, roughly twice what it was in September, Asharq Business reports, citing an unnamed government official. Gas allocations to fertilizer and methanol plants have also been cut by 20% since Monday, 2 November, according to Asharq. Egypt had already budgeted for a 26% increase in its gas import bill to USD 10.7 bn this fiscal year.

OUR TAKE- The LNG supply glut expected this year is looking increasingly unlikely, with the market now facing tighter conditions well into 2027. More supply was supposed to give importers some breathing room on prices, particularly those able to hold off on purchases. But with the IEA now expecting a longer supply shortfall and Europe likely to need more LNG to refill storage next summer, waiting carries considerably more risk. Some buyers are already responding by cutting consumption, whether through switching to coal in Asia or reducing industrial gas allocations in Egypt. Deferring cargoes, however, leaves the demand in place and shifts the purchase to a later date, when competition for supply could be just as intense. For import-dependent countries such as Egypt, securing contracted volumes ahead of next summer could offer more protection than relying on the spot market once European buyers return.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Seoul falls on AI jitters: South Korea’s Kospi opened -2.5% yesterday and kept falling through the session to close -3.6%, dragged down by tech stocks as investors remain worried that AI spending is growing too fast. Japanese markets, including the Nikkei 225, were closed yesterday for the Culture Day national holiday.

TASI

9,876

–0.1% (YTD: -5.9%)

MSCI Tadawul 30

1,342

+0.0% (YTD: -3.2%)

NomuC

21,447

-0.7% (YTD: -8.0%)

USD : SAR (SAMA)

USD 3.75 Sell

USD 3.75 Buy

Interest rates

4.25% repo

3.75% reverse repo

EGX30

49,255

+1.8% (YTD: +17.8%)

ADX

9,462

-0.3% (YTD: -5.3%)

DFM

5,810

-0.1% (YTD: -3.9%)

S&P 500

7,569

+0.4% (YTD:+10.6%)

FTSE 100

10,638

-1.1% (YTD: +7.1%)

Euro Stoxx 50

6,145

-0.5% (YTD: +6.0%)

Brent crude

USD 103.60

-1.1%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 2.90

0.0%

Gold

USD 3,938

-0.1%

BTC

USD 77,601

+1.1% (YTD: -11.5%)

Sukuk/bond market index

892.13

-0.0% (YTD: -3.0%)

S&P MENA bond & sukuk

149.06

-2.0% (YTD: -1.9%)

VIX (Volatility Index)

20.83

-1.5% (YTD: +39.3%)

THE CLOSING BELL: TADAWUL-

The TASI fell 0.1% yesterday on turnover of SAR 3.4 bn. The index is down 5.9% YTD.

In the green: Al Omran Industrial Trading (+6.3%), Saudi Printing and Packaging (+5.9%), and Al Majed Oud (+5.2%).

In the red: Dar Al Majed Real Estate (-9.1%), Malath Cooperative Ins. (-6.8%), and Dallah Healthcare (-5.4%).

THE CLOSING BELL: NOMU-

The NomuC fell 0.7% yesterday on turnover of SAR 19 mn. The index is down 8% YTD.

In the green: National Building and Marketing (+13.7%), Quara Finance (+9.3%), and Tam Development (+7.3%).

In the red: Almuneef Company for Trade, Industry, Agriculture and Contracting (-10.8%), Al Kuzama Trading (-9.9%), and Sahat Almajd Trading (-9.7%).


NOVEMBER

11-12 November (Wednesday-Thursday): Aluminum Arabia, The Arena, Riyadh.

16-19 November (Monday-Thursday): Cityscape Global, Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre (Malham), Riyadh.

29 November-1 December (Sunday-Tuesday): The UN Trade and Development Global Supply Chain Forum, Riyadh.

29 November-1 December (Sunday-Tuesday): The Global Logistics Forum, King Abdulaziz International Convention Centre, Riyadh.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2026:

DECEMBER

14-16 December (Monday-Wednesday): The Innovation Driven Water Sustainability Conference (IDWS 2026), Jeddah

2027

JANUARY

12-14 January (Tuesday-Thursday): The Future Minerals Forum (FMF), Riyadh.

FEBRUARY

1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): Energy Regulators Regional Association annual conference, Riyadh.

MARCH

21-25 March (Sunday-Thursday): The World Water Forum, Riyadh.

22–24 March (Monday-Wednesday): Capital Markets Forum, Four Seasons Hotel, Riyadh

APRIL

26-29 April (Monday-Thursday): World Energy Congress, Riyadh.

JUNE

1-3 June (Tuesday-Thursday): The Saudi Entertainment and Amusement Expo, Riyadh Front Exhibition and Conference Center.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

  • The Ocean Race finishes in Amaala on the Red Sea;
  • Riyadh-Kudmi transmission line to be completed;
  • Aero Middle East and Sand & Fun takes place in Thumamah Airport, Riyadh.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2Q 2027:

  • The Hail Region Water Networks Project is expected to be completed.
Now Playing
Now Playing
00:00
00:00