RIYADH – Saudi stocks dived 7.0 percent in early trading on Sunday as theoil-rich kingdom comes under increasing international pressure over thedisappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Tadawul All-Shares Index (TASI) quickly lost more than 500 points onthe first trading day of the week, wiping out all the gains it had madesince the start of the year.

The index had already dropped 3.0 percent on Thursday, following a rout onworld stock markets fuelled by worries about higher interest rates and USPresident Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve.

The TASI was trading at just above 7,000 points, a 10-month low, havingreversed all of the 18-percent gain it had notched up since the start of2018.

All 15 sectors in the market were in the red while almost all listed sharesdropped.

In just two sessions the Saudi bourse, the largest in the Arab world, hasshed almost $50 billion of its capitalisation, which now stands at around$450 billion.

Mohammed Zidan, market strategist at Thinkmarket in Dubai, said the drop inSaudi stocks was the result of panic selling because of several politicaland economic factors.

“There has been a kind of uncertainty surrounding the situation of thedisappearance of Khashoggi which has caused the market to fall,” Zidan toldAFP.

Trump threatened Riyadh on Saturday with “severe punishment” if Khashoggi,a contributor for the Washington Post who has been critical of Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman, was killed inside its Istanbul consulate.

With the mystery over Khashoggi unresolved after he failed to reappearafter walking into the consulate on October 2, a pro-government Turkishdaily said the Saudi national had recorded his own interrogation inside themission on an Apple Watch. – APP/AFP