Kuwait’s bourse closes higher; volume ticks up
KUWAIT CITY, Aug 1: Kuwait stocks pulled higher on Wednesday stemming the three-day fall. The All Shares Index rose 12 pts to 5,179.67 points led by some of the blue chips and midcaps even as the broader sentiment remained soggy.
The Premier Market dropped 13.32 pts to 5,310.31 points after rallying 391 points during last month while Main Market climbed 9.83 points to 4,942.81 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile ticked slightly up but remained below the 100 million mark. Over 95 million shares changed hands — up 3.7 pct from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in green turf. Technology outshone the rest with 3pct gain whereas telecommunications slipped 0.42 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Volume wise, banks garnered the highest market share of 32 pct and real estate trailed with 21.99 percent contribution.
Among the prime movers, Gulf Bank rallied 5 fils to 267 fils with brisk trading shares and Kuwait Finance House took in 2 fils on back of over 6 million shares. Boubyan Petrochemical Co jumped 16 fils and NAPESCO soared 41 fils. UPAC powered 50 fils ahead to 690 fils.
Zain fell 3 fils to 483 fils after trading over 4 million shares and Ooredoo extended Tuesday’s surge with 5 fils gain. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) fell 3 fils to 727 fils and Agility climbed 6 fils to 849 fils.
National Bank of Kuwait inched 1 fil up and Boubyan Bank closed flat at 513 fils. The bank’s second quarter earnings rose 17.6 pct to KD 13.18 million while during the first six months the bank posted a 17.7 percent jump in profits to KD 25.74 million.
Tame
The market opened on a tame note and headed north in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s highest level of 5185 pts amid strong buying in select counters and retreated thereafter. It continued to drift lower and bottomed at 5,161 pts in the final minutes before clawing back into green at close.
Top gainer of the day, Remal spiked 17.7 pct to 37.1 fils and KMEFIC jumped 12.5 percent to stand next. RKWC slid 8.6 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and KGL Logistics Co topped the volume with 10.8 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s uptick, the winners outnumbered the losers. 59 stocks advanced whereas 43 closed lower. Of the 116 counters active on Wednesday, 14 closed flat. 4577 deals worth KD 17.5 million were transacted — down 19.6 percent in value from the day before.
National Industries Group and Gulf Cable fell 1 fils each to close at 160 fils and 378 fils respectively while Independent Petroleum Group paused at 421 fils. Al Qurain Petrochemical Co clipped 1 fil and Equipment Holding Co added 1.3 fils.
Jazeera Airways took in 1 fil and ALAFCO climbed 6 fils to 364 fils.
Automated Systems Co added 4 fils ACICO Industries gained 6 fils. Combined Group Contracting Co scaled 5 fils and Mashaer Holding held ground at 48.9 fils.
Humansoft Holding slid 50 fils to KD 3.500 and Inovest ticked 0.8 fil into red. KPPC dialed up 2 fils and KCPC edged 1 fil lower to 233 fils. Al Rai Media Group eased 0.7 fil to 96.5 fils.
Kuwait Foundry Co dialed up 1 fil whereas Kuwait Portland Cement and Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co stood pat at KD 1.095 and 428 fils respectively. Equipment Holding Co was up 1.3 fils at 29.5 fils.
Commercial Bank slipped 3 fils to 522 fils while Burgan Bank and Warba Bank were unchanged at 277 fils and 235 fils respectively. Al Mutahed ticked 1 fil up to close at 298 fils.
Kuwait International Bank eased 1 fils to 258 fils after trading over 4 million shares s and Ahli United Bank dialed up 2 fils. Al Ahli Bank was not traded during the session.
KIPCO fell 1 fil to 237 fils and Kuwait Investment Co took in 1 fil. International Financial Advisors dialed down 1.4 fils and National Investment
Co inched 0.1 fil into red. Coast Investment Co fell 1.3 fils to 31.5 fils.
KMEFIC gained 2.5 fils whereas Securities House Co and Al Mal Investment Co gave up 0.7 fil each to end at 50.2 fils and 18.3 fils respectively. Ektittab Holding ticked 0.3 fil down to 26 fils.
KAMCO rose 2.4 fils to 75.4 fils wheile Sokouk Holding and Noor Fianncial Investment Co took in 0.5 fil each. Al Deera Holding tripped 1.1 fils and Arzan added 1.5 fils before settling at 31 fils. KFIC fell 0.6 fil to 48 fils.
Bayan Investment clipped 2 fils and Osoul Investment dialed up 0.9 fil to wind up at 56.4 fils. Al Imtiaz paused at 134 fils and Wethaq Takaful was up 1.5 fils at 29 fils.
Mabanee Co slipped 5 fils to 658 fils and Kuwait Real Estate ticked 0.7 fils into red. Mazaya Holding took in 0.5 fil and National Real Estate Co nudged 2 fils higher to 117 fils. United Real Estate Co inched 0.1 fil up.
The market has been largely weak so far during the week, shedding 47 points in last four sessions and had rallied 277 pts during whole of July. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.