Saudi Arabia's financial regulator has fined state-controlled Saudi Telecoms Co (STC) for violating stock market disclosure rules, the regulator said on Sunday.

STC was fined 100,000 riyals ($26,670) for failing to disclose stock option programmes for senior management in its 2009 annual report, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in a statement.

Like others in the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia's stock exchange has been dogged by allegations that it lacks transparency and is vulnerable to price manipulation.   

But the bourse is gradually opening up to direct foreign ownership amid tough competition from regional bourses and over the past two years the CMA has stepped up efforts to clamp down on irregularities, imposing one jail sentence and revoking the licences of several brokerage firms for violations. - Reuters