Saudi Airlines Flynas IPO shares fell 13% at one point due to the pressure of the Iran-Israel conflict 

Gate News bot message, the stock price of Saudi Arabian airline Flynas Co. fluctuated significantly on its first trading day in Riyadh, due to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran affecting regional stock markets and putting pressure on airline stocks.

The stock price of this low-cost airline once fell by 13%, to 69.90 riyals per share, and then reduced its losses, rising by 1%. Within 20 minutes of opening, trading was temporarily halted twice. The main exchange in Saudi Arabia fell by 0.7%.

Flynas's offering price last month was 80 riyals per share, at the upper end of the market's expected valuation range of 13.7 billion riyals (3.65 billion USD).

Although Flynas is the first Gulf airline to go public in nearly two decades and has the largest IPO in the Middle East this year, with an $1.1 billion stock issuance attracting over $100 billion in institutional orders, the company's stock price still experienced a decline.

This is the latest example of an IPO ending poorly in the Saudi stock market after the lackluster debut of United Carton Industries Co., highlighting the vibrant IPO performance in Saudi Arabia a few months ago. The Israel-Iran conflict may complicate trading further, as some countries in the region have closed their airspace, banning commercial flights, putting pressure on airline stocks.

Last Friday, Israel suspended flights over Iranian airspace, and Iran also halted operations at its main airport in Tehran, leading to the most severe disruption in air traffic. Due to the exchanges of fire between Israel and Iran, the airspaces of Iraq, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon have been repeatedly closed and reopened.

Emirates Airlines has fallen more than 3% so far this week. Kuwait Airways experienced its largest drop since 2020 on Sunday, and on Wednesday it briefly fell by 4.2%.

Source: Bloomberg