The gains in telecom and petrochemical stocks led Saudi shares higher in early trading despite a three-day losing streak for oil prices.

The all-share index was up 0.4 per cent at 6,325 points lifted mainly by a 0.8 per cent rise by the petrochemical stocks index and 0.9 percent gain by the telecom stocks index.

The makers of the BlackBerry started on Friday looking into the possibility of using servers in Saudi Arabia to avert a threatened ban on its Messenger services by the Saudi government, a situation that has hurt Saudi telecom stocks.

Mobily added 1.4 per cent, leading gainers among telecom stocks.

Crude oil prices on Friday fell for a third straight day after weak US job data. Shares in heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries Corporation added 0.3 per cent.

The much smaller Allujain went almost limit-up after announcing the start of commercial production at its subsidiary polypropylene complex, Natpet.-Reuters