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Jeddah - Yasmine El Tohamy - RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s stock market slipped in early trading, after recording ten straight days of gains, as investors sentiment was weighed down by profit drops and losses in major market players.

As of 10:17 a.m. Saudi time, the main index TASI went down by 0.6 percent to reach 12,223 points, and the parallel market Nomu fell 0.8 percent to 25,856 points.

Shares in Saudi dairy giant Almarai slid 2 percent to reach SR48.9 ($13) as it led morning losses.

This came after the dairy giant recorded a 21 percent decline in profit in 2021 as pandemic and value-added tax weighed on revenues.

Similarly, Saudia Dairy and Foodstuff Co., or SADAFCO, saw a 1.3 percent decline in its share price after its profits dropped by 29 percent during the nine months ending Dec. 31, 2021.

The Kingdom’s oil giant Saudi Aramco saw losses amounting to 0.3 percent and its largest bank by market value, Al Rajhi Bank, edged 0.4 percent lower.

Adding to financial sector woes, shares of the biggest Saudi lender, the Saudi National Bank, dropped 1.2 percent, and those of Alinma Bank and the Saudi British Bank, SABB, were down 0.2 and 1.7 percent, respectively.

Information technology company Al Moammar Information Systems Co., also known as MIS, was down 0.3 percent.

Earlier, MIS said it signed deals with Edarat Communications and Information Technology Co. to provide cloud hosting solutions and data center services.

Nama Chemicals Co. topped the gainers in the early morning, surging 3 percent to SR42.8.