Small-caps weigh on Price Index amid thin trade

Boursa Kuwait ended last week in the red zone. The Price Index closed at 7,007.89 points, down by 0.31% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.89% after closing at 416.40 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 943.04 points declining by 1.56%. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 9.64%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 27.40 million, whereas trading volume average was 358.45 million shares, recording a drop of 0.10%.

The three market indices recorded losses by the end of last week, especially the KSX-15 Index, which was the biggest loser among its peers, the Price & Weighted indices, where it recorded a decrease of 1.56% by the end of the week compared to its previous week closing, affected by the selling and speculative operations executed on many leading and operational listed stocks.

The Boursa Kuwait initiated its first session of last week with mixed performance for its three indices, where the Price Index recorded decline as a result of the selling pressures on the small-cap stocks, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices received support from the active purchasing and speculative operations on the leading and heavy stocks, amid a noticeable decline in the trading activity, where the cash liquidity dropped by 34.69%, the volume decreased by 27.86%, and the deals contracted by 23.29%.

In addition, the market could not hold for the next session, as the selling and profit collection operations executed on leading stocks and the selling pressures that the small-cap stocks were subject to, caused the three market indices to drop by the end of the session, while the trading activity increased in comparison to the previous session.

On the mid-week session, the Boursa Kuwait indices were able to redirect its performance and record some gains, supported by the active and strong speculative operations on many listed stocks, while the random purchasing operations executed on a limited number of leading stocks gave support to the Weighted and KSX-15 indices to increase by the end of the session, in light of a noticeable decline in the trading activity, where the market lost around 28.40% of its cash liquidity.

Moreover, the three indices closed mixed on Wednesday’s session, whereas the Price Index was able to realize some gains in light of the active purchasing operations that concentrated on a number of low-priced stocks, especially after the positive disclosure of few listed companies of its first quarter financial results for 2017, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices couldn’t keep up to its peer’s performance, and lost all its gains realized in the earlier sessions of the week.

On the last session of the week, none of the indices could record gains, whereas the heavy selling pressures witnessed by a large number of stocks of most market sectors, especially in the Technology, Real Estate, and Telecommunications, caused the Boursa to underperform and close in the red zone, despite the activity witnessed on the trading performance during the session, especially the volume, which increased by 40.43%.

The market capitalization reached by the end of last week K.D. 27.45 billion, down by 0.41% compared to its level in a week earlier, where it was K.D. 27.57 billion. On an annual level, the market cap for the listed companies in the main market increased by 8.05% from its value at end of 2016, where it reached then K.D. 25.41 billion.

For the annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 21.92% annual gain compared to its closing in 2016, while the Weighted Index increased by 9.55%, and the KSX15 recorded 6.56% growth.

Sectors’ Indices

Seven of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other five recorded decreases. Last week’s highest gainer was the Insurance sector, achieving 3.04% growth rate as its index closed at 1,111.27 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Industrial sector’s index closed at 1,738.25 points recording 1.59% increase. The Health Care sector came in third as its index achieved 1.02% growth, ending the week at 1,523.52 points.

On the other hand, the Technology sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 3.75% to end the week’s activity at 773.73 points. The Real Estate sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 3.50%, closing at 1,053.48 points, followed by the Consumer Goods sector, as its index closed at 1,127.96 points at a loss of 1.45%. The Banks sector was the least declining as its index closed at 965.47 points with a 0.96% decrease.

Sectors’ Activity

The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 774.22 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 43.20% of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 34.21% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 613.10 million shares.

On the other hand, the Real Estate sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around K.D 42.68 million or 31.15% of last week’s total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was approx. K.D 40.42 million representing 29.50% of the total market trading value.