Tadawul Equities Start Week Lower; Saudi Arabia's June PMI Rises

The Tadawul All Share Index closed the first Sunday of July at 0.26% in the red as investors assessed the health of Saudi Arabia's non-oil private sector. The Riyad Bank Purchasing Managers' Index, a closely watched survey of the kingdom's business conditions, grew to 53.3 in June from 52.8 in May. Data showed an uptick in output and an improvement in business growth. "Business sentiment continued to strengthen, with firms reporting their highest level of optimism since January. The improvement in expectations points to growing confidence in the domestic business environment and suggests that companies increasingly anticipate favourable market conditions to support business activity over the coming months. This positive outlook reinforces expectations that non-oil growth will remain supported during the second half of the year," Riyad Bank Chief Economist Naif Al-Ghaith commented. Looking ahead to the rest of the week, the local calendar will be empty except for the kingdom's industrial production figures for May on Thursday. In other news, investors are also focusing on the result of OPEC+'s meeting on Sunday. The group will increase crude output targets by 188,000 barrels.