Saudi Arabia released its National Transformation Plan (NTP) yesterday, breaking down the goals from the Vision 2030 into hundreds of strategic objectives and numerical targets. Our first reading reaffirms our view that Saudi Arabian companies and consumers face a period of relative austerity over the next few years, and we stay Underweight on KSA equities. We still like retail and healthcare stocks that are plays on consolidation and efficient spending, as well as companies that are relatively ‘subsidy free’. KSA stocks may get a boost if MSCI chooses to put the market up for consultation at its 14 June annual review, but we expect this will be short-lived. (Simon Kitchen, Mohamed Abu Basha, Yousef Husseini, Saudi gov’t)