Kuwait nudges higher amid volume pullback

NBK rallies 16 fils; VIVA ticks down

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 22 : Kuwait stocks edged higher on Monday, partly reversing last sessions pullback. The price index added a marginal 4.72 points in volatile trade to 6,625.12 points paced by National Bank of Kuwait and some of the other heavyweights.

The KSX 15 gauge jumped 9.93 points to 972.38 pts while weighted index was up 2.93 pts to 420.21 points. The volume turnover meanwhile shrank for second straight session. 131.12 million shares changed hands – down 8.28 pct from the day before.

The sectors closed mixed. Telecommunications outshone the rest with 0.71 pct and parallel market dipped 2.78 pct, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, real estate notched the highest market share of 33.7 percent and banks trailed with 23.9 pct contribution.

In the individual performers, sectors bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 16 fils on back of 2.7 million shares to 785 fils taking month’s gains to 57 fils while Gulf Bank climbed 8 fils to 250 fils. KIPCO shone with 6 fils gain and Mabanee Co rose 5 fils to 738 fils.

Zain rose 4 fils to 492 fils with a volume of 1.5 million and Ooredoo clawed back most of Sunday’s drop with a 35 fils rebound. Kuwait Telecommunications Co ( VIVA) eased 1 fil to 778 fils and Agility climbed 10 fils.

Burgan Bank added 3 fils and Warba Bank followed suit to end at 226 fils. The bank’s third quarter earnings soared 428.4 pct to KD 2.23 million from KD 442,000 same period of 2016. During the first nine months, the profits jumped 442 percent to KD 4.75 million.

The market kicked off on a choppy note and edged higher in early trade. The main index meandered in narrow range and scaled the day’s highest level of 6,641 points past the mid-session . It however headed south in final minutes to bottom at 6613 pts before clawing back into green zone at close.

Top gainer of the day, Amwal Investment rallied 19.96 pts to 61.3 fils and QIC jumped 15.5 pct to 81 fils. Kuwait Bahrain International Exchange sank 36.71 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ithmaar topped the volume with 11.8 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s uptick, the winners outnumbered the losers. 62 stocks advanced whereas 50 closed lower. Of the 134 counters active on Monday, 22 closed flat. 4636 deals worth KD 14.79 million were transacted – a 4.57 pct drop in value from the day before.

National Industries Group rose 3 fils to 161 fils on back of over 2 million shares while Gulf Cable gave up 4 fils to end at 450 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co slipped 3 fils and ACICO ticked 1 fil higher,

Jazeera Airways took in 1 fil and ALAFCO climbed 7 fils to 380 fils with razor thin trading volume. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slipped 8 fils to 727 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co held ground at 354 fils.

Kuwait Foundry Co fell 4 fils to 222 fils whereas Hilal Cement Co and NICBM stood pat at 1,125 fils and 188 fils respectively. Equipment Holding Co paused at 43.5 fils after trading 3.6 million shares.

Halted

Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co halted its winning spree with a 6 fils pullback with brisk trading and KGL Logistics gave back 2.2 fils after trading over 7 million shares. KCPC closed flat at 150 fils and IFA Hotels and Resorts clipped 2 fils.

Kuwait Food Co (Americana) recouped last session’s fall with a 5 fils gain. The company’s profits dropped 18.7 pct year-on-year to KD 16.65 million in the third quarter of 2017. The earnings ticked up by 0.5 pct to KD 44.9 m in the January-September period.

Humansoft Holding eased 1 fil to KD 3.799 and Combined Group Contracting Co gained 13 fils. Al Rai Media Group and Inovest trimmed 1 fil each.

Mezzan Holding dialed up 2 fils and NAPESCO gained 8 fils. The bank has posted a 104.4 percent surge to KD 3.96 million in the third quarter profits of 2017 from the same period last year. The company earned KD 8 mln in the first three quarters - a 39.9 pct rise from KD 5.72 mln.

Kuwait Finance House took in 2 fils on bck of 1.9 million share and Al Ahli Bank was down 3 fils at 305 fils. Commercial Bank was not traded during the session. AlMutahed was unchanged at 350 fils and Kuwait International Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of 236 fils. Boubyan Bank held ground at 460 fils after narrowly vacillating earlier in the session.

Kuwait Investment Co eased 2 fils to 123 fils and International Financial Advisors trimmed 0.6 fil. National Investment Co inched 1 fil down while Al Mal Investment and Osoul Investment were unchanged at 27.8 fils and 50 fils respectively.

Bayan Investment ticked 0.2 fil lower while Securities House Co gave up 0.5 fil to end at 56.3 fils. Sokouk Holding added 0.9 fil whereas KMEFIC gave up 0.9 fil before closing at 2 25.5 fils. KFIC edged 0.3 fil up to 45.3 fils.

KAMCO dialed 1.2 fils and A Deera Holding closed 0.8 fil in red. Noor Financial Investment Co and Al Imtiaz stalled at 57.3 fils and 161 fils respectively while Unicap added 0.7 fil.

Kuwait Real Estate Co trimmed 02 fil and Kuwait Real Estate Co inched 0.2 fil higher. National Real Estate added 2 fils and Mazaya Holding closed flat.

The bourse has been mixed so far during the week and has slipped 13 pts in last two session. It has rallied 254 pts from start of the month after adding 11.8 percent during whole of 2017. KSE, with 188 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region.

In the bourse related news, Mezzan Holding Company posted a 10.5 pct year-on-year drop in profits to KD 2.8 million for the third quarter of 2017, in the first nine months of the year,ernins dipped by 23.1 percent to KD 10.1 million. Revenues grow 4.3 pct to KD 49.8 million in Q3 , while in 9M period was almost unchanged year-on-year at KD 157.6 million

Agility has recorded net profits of KD 49.2 million in the first nine months of 2017 while the return on equity increased by 13.7 percent to 39.1 fils per share. In the July-September period, the earnings soared 714 pct to WD 17.8 million, increasing by 714% year-on-year.

Zain’s third quarter earnings dropped 7 percent to nearly KD 40 million , compared to KD 43 million for the same period last year. Revenues amounted to KD 259 million and EBITDA stood at KD 104 million. In the 9M period, profits slipped by 1.6 pct to KD 122 million.

Mashaer Holding incurred a losses of KD 597,180 in the third quarter of 2017, as compared to KD 503,400 profit in the year ago period. In the first nine-months the company suffered losses of KD 19,280 as against KD 584,800 profits in the same period in 2016 and is attributed to a provision of tax claim valued at KD 1.03 million.