Tadawul

Also known as the "Black February", the Saudi stock market collapsed in 2006, and the number of listed companies was 76, causing a loss of one trillion Saudi riyals, which led to the bankruptcy of many middle-income traders. Some of them sold their cars or invested their life savings on the market. [8]

The second day of the crash on Sunday February 26, 2006 witnessed a wave of collective selling in the first minute of trading, which caused an increase in panic and contact with more than 60 companies with the lowest rate, and the closure of all market companies on a sharp decline, as the sale of 1.5 million shares was executed in the first minute of trading, especially after the Kingdom’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) decided to reduce the volatility to 5% and implement it with the start of trading on Saturday, February 25 of the year 2006. The general index lost on the second day of the collapse nearly 980 points, equivalent to 4.75% of the total market, and the shares lost approximately 144.5 billion riyals out of its market value, the doors of hope for the return or stability of the market at reasonable levels of correction are closed.

National economic catastrophe that affected citizens, revealed the low level of economic management that did not succeed in reading the market crisis before it occurred, and was not given enough importance, then it was unable to manage and deal with it in an optimal manner, which helped in the occurrence of the major economic disaster in the country's history. Some attributed the cause of the collapse to many things, including stopping a number of speculators and the fear of others of similar sanctions, and to the decision to determine the percentage of fluctuation and the abolition of fractures, and prevent the return of speculators ’commissions, which seem weak compared to the main collapse of the price inflation that the regulatory authorities contributed to.

This necessitated King Abdullah's personal intervention to resolve the crisis, where he ordered the division of shares and the permitting of non-Saudi residents to invest directly in the stock market and not limiting it to investment funds and reducing the nominal value of the share, which were issued by decisions of the CMA and was applied. [9]