Kuwait’s market winds up week with downtick
Zain dips 11 fils, Amwal rallies
KUWAIT CITY, Sep 12: Kuwait stocks edged slightly higher on Thursday to wind up the week on a tepid note. The All Shares Index eased 2.26 pts to 5,745 points extending last session’s tumble. The overall trend however was mixed.
The Premier Market slipped 9.86 pts to 6,251 taking the month’s losses to 276 points while Main Market climbed 13.68 points. The volume turnover meanwhile shrank following Wednesday’s rebound. Over 124 million shares changed hands – down 25 pct from the day before.
The sectors closed mixed. Financial services outperformed the rest with 0.47 pct gain whereas consumer goods slid 4.26 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Volume wise, financial services topped with 48.2 million shares while in value terms banks forged ahead with over KD 20 million.
In the individual shares, Gulf Bank gave up 3 fils to close at 285 fils after pushing 3.7 million shares and Burgan Bank followed suit to end at 329 fils with a volume of 3.2 million. KIPCO rose 3 fils to 230 fils on back of over 4 million shares.
Zain dropped 11 fils to 537 fils after moving 3.6 million shares over the counter while Ooredoo climbed 10 fils to 721 fils partly recouping Wednesday’s losses. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) slipped 6 fils to 793 fils and Agility was down 7 fils at 537 fils. Humansoft Holding shed 8 fils.
The market opened firm and headed north in early trade. The main index peaked at 5,796 pts and moved sideways half way into the session. It drifted lower thereafter to bottom at 5,735 pts as sentiment turned weak and closed slightly in the red.
Top gainer of the day, Amwal rallied 10 pct to 55 fils and Marakez climbed 7.9 percent to stand next. Al Eid skidded 10 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with over 16 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s slight fall, the losers slightly outnumbered the winners. 43 stocks advanced whereas 48 closed lower. Of the 112 counters active on Thursday, 21 closed flat. 6,183 deals worth KD 31.4 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group added 3 fils on back of 7.4 million shares to end at 222 fils and Mezzan Holding skidded 31 fils to 567 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slipped 7 fils to 761 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co ticked 1 fil higher to 341 fils. Integrated Holding Co eased 1 fil to 385 fils.
Jazeera Airways dialed down 1 fil and ALAFCO rose 4 fils to 259 fils. Mashaer Holding ticked 0.1 fil lower to 68.4 fils and IFA Hotels and Resorts was up 2.5 fils at 50 fils. Soor Fuel and Gulf Petroleum Investment were unchanged at 118 fils and 23.8 fils respectively.
Kuwait Cement Co was unchanged at 271 fils while Gulf Cable inched 1 fil down to 431 fils. Sharjah Cement and Gulf Cement dialed up 2 fils each whereas Fujairah Cement added 1.4 fils to end at 51 fils. Ras Al Khaimah White Cement slipped 4 fils to 59 fils.
Salbookh Trading gave up 1.7 fils
while Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co dialed down 1 fil before closing at 399 fils. Warbacap edged 0.6 fils up to 71 fils. SPEC gave up 3.1 fils before settling at 71 fils.
Combined Group Contracting Co took in 1 fil and NICBM was down 7 fils at 168 fils. AAN inched 0.2 fil higher and FutureKid trimmed 0.5 fil. Safat Energy dialed up 0.9 fil to close at 19.5 fils and KPPC took in 1.6 fils.
In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait tripped 1 fil after trading over 5 million shares and Kuwait International Bank was up 3 fils at 273 fils. Kuwait Finance House stood pat at 707 fils and Boubyan Bank fell 4 fils to 541 fils.
Commercial Bank was flat at 500 fils whereas Al Ahli Bank climbed 5 fils to 308 fils. Al Mutahed gained 6 fils and Ahli United Bank followed suit with brisk trading to close at 283 fils.
Kuwait Investment Co and National Investment Co closed flat at 138 fils and 129 fils respectively whereas FACIL rose 4 fils to 199 fils. International Financial Advisors added 1.7 fils and Coast Investment Co inched 0.3 fil higher to 33 fils. Securities House paused at 44.5 fils.
Kuwait Financial Centre ( Markaz) fell 2.5 fils to 98 fils after trading over 1 million shares and KMEFIC eased
0.1 fil. Al Aman dialed up 1.1 fils and ALOLA ticked 0.1 fil higher on back of over 1 million shares. Al Mal Investment edged 0.2 fil higher to 13.1 fils.
Bayan Investment rose 2.8 fils to 41.8 fils while KFIC and Madar Finance tripped 1 fil each to close at 46.4 fils and 108 fils respectively. Al Deera Holding clipped 0.1 fil and GIH was down 4.6 fils at 45.4 fils.
Noor Financial Investment Co and Sokouk Holding paused at 84 fils and 33.8 fils respectively whereas Ektittab Holding took in 1.2 fils. KAMCO clipped 2 fils and Unicap ticked 0.3 fil into red. Al Imtiaz rose 3 fils on back of 1.5 million shares and Gulf Insurance jumped 10 fils.
Kuwait Real Estate was flat at 82.2 fils whereas United Real Estate and Arkan tripped 0.4 fil each. National Real Estate eased 0.2 fil to 82 fils and Mazaya Holding inched 0.1 fil into red.
The bourse was downbeat during the week. The main index closed lower in four of the five session and skidded 209 points week-on-week.
It has shed 196 pts so far during the month and is trading 666 pts higher year-to-date. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.