RIYADH, Feb 25: Saudi shares rose more than 1 per cent in the Saturday morning session as investors shrugged off a foiled suicide attack on a giant oil facility in eastern Saudi Arabia.

Blue-chip utility Saudi Electricity rose 4.87pc to close the morning at 280 riyals ($74.66), lifting the main index to 20,848.79 points, up 1.09 per cent.

Al Qaeda claimed Friday’s attack on the world’s largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq which drove up global oil prices but failed to disrupt output. Two cars exploded at the plant’s gates but officials said security forces had foiled the attack.

The attacks weren’t an issue because there was no material damage done to oil production, said Ibrahim Alalwan, head of investment research at Bakheet Finance. There is trust in the security forces.

Officials say around 144 foreigners and Saudis, including security forces, and 120 militants have died in militant attacks and clashes with police since May 2003, when al Qaeda suicide bombers struck at three Western housing compounds in Riyadh.

But Saudi shares have largely ignored the security situation in the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, and risen more than six-fold since 2002 thanks to record oil revenues.

A law halving the band for maximum share price movements to 5pc came into effect on Saturday and helped calm trading.

Some investors had been playing the market (with speculative stocks) but after the law investors shifted to the highest performing stocks, leading to a rise in the big stocks, Alalwan said.—Reuters