Kuwait bourse winds up week with ‘uptick’

Mabanee Co rallies 7 fils, KIPCO flat

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 17: Kuwait stocks ticked higher on Thursday to wind up the week on a positive note. The All Shares Index added 2.94 pts in a volatile session to 5,766.73 points even as the broader sentiment remained mixed.

The Premier Market rose 3.87 pts to 6,299.66 points taking the month’s gains to 125 points while Main Market inched 1 pts higher to 4,725.63 points. The volume turnover meanwhile dipped to a three-week low. Over 82 million shares changed hands – a 40.5 pct drop from the day before.

The sectors closed mixed. Basic Materials outpaced the rest with 0.82 pct gain whereas Technology skidded 9.5 pct, the steepest decliner of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with over 35 million shares while Bank were ahead in terms of value with KD 8.4 million.

Among the notable movers, Mabanee Co rallied 8 fils to 763 fils and Boubyan Bank rose 4 fils to 572 fils. Mezzan Holding dived 21 fils to 527 fils and Boubyan Petrochemical Co climbed 11 fils to 764 fils.

Zain took in 2 fils on back of 2.9 million shares while Ooredoo rose 4 fils to 718 fils. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) slipped 6 fils to 749 fils trimming the month’s gains to 22 fils and Agility eased 1 fil to 753 fils. Humansoft Holding inched 1 fil higher to KD 3.118.

The market opened firm and pushed higher in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s highest level of 5,772 pts and flipped direction as sentiment turned weak. It bottomed at 5,753 points and clawed back in the second half to close barely in green turf.

Top gainer of the day, Ras Al Khaimah White Cement Co soared 23.9 pct to 75 fils and AGHC sprinted 14.5 pct to stand next. Warba Insurance Co shed 14.5 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Aayan topped the volume with over 13 million shares.

Despite the uptick, the losers outnumbered the winners. 42 stocks advanced whereas 53 closed lower. Of the 116 counters active on Thursday, 21 closed flat. 4,423 deals worth KD 16.3 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group fell 2 fils to 226 fils and Gulf Cable followed suit to close at 456 fils. ACICO Industries took in 1 fil whereas Gulf Petroleum Investment and International Petroleum Group stood pat at 18.5 fils and 420 fils respectively.

Kuwait Cement Co was unchanged at 265 fils and Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co too did not budge from its earlier close of 404 fils. QIC was down 5.9 fils at 61.1 fils. Gulf Cement Co fell 0.4 fil to 58.9 fils and Fujairah Cement Co held ground at 51 fils. SPEC added 1.5 fil

NICBM took in 2 fils whereas Equipment Holding Co eased 0.3 fil to 16.5 fils. Safat Energy Holding trimmed 7 fils before closing at 19 fils. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co gave up 2 fils and KGL Logistics edged 1 fil into red.

Jazeera Airways climbed 4 fils to 995 fils while ALAFCO tripped 1 fil before settling at 263 fils. Mashaer Holding and Warbacap clipped 1 fil

each whereas Equipment Holding inched 0.3 fil into red. KPPC fell 0.6 fil to 49.9 fils

In the banking sector National Bank of Kuwait took 1 fil on back of 2.4 million shares while Gulf Bank clipped 1 fil each with a volume of 1.6 million and 1.4 million respectively. Burgan Bank was unchanged at 306 fils after pushing 4.6 million shares.

Stagnated

Warba Bank dialed down 2 fils whereas Ahli United Bank stagnated at 255 fils after trading over 4 million shares. Al Ahli Bank eased 1 fil to 298 fils and Al Mutahed dialed up 2 fils before settling at 320 fils.

KIPCO was flat at 220 fils and Gulf Finance House gave up 0.6 fil to end at 72.1 fils. Kuwait Investment Co paused at 137 fils while FACIL and National Investment Co took in 1 fil each. International Financial Advisors ticked 0.2 fil higher to 55.1 fils on back of over 4 million shares.

KMEFIC tripped 0.2 fil whereas Al Aman added 1.9 fil to close at 57 fils. Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) gave up 0.5 fil to close at 90.5 fils and Aayan followed suit with brisk trading. ALOLA and Securities House fell

0.7 fil each while Unicap closed 1.8 fil into red.

Bayan Investment Co and Osoul Investment took in 0.1 fil each whereas KFIC was down 0.9 fil at 45.9 fils. Madar dialed up 2 fils on back of 1.2 million shares and Al Madina ticked 0.1 fil higher.

Noor Financial Investment Co rose 2.5 fils to 91 fils whereas Al Imtiaz and GNAHC stood pat at 124 fils and 57.7 fils respectively. Kuwait Insurance Co was flat at 320 fils and Ahleia Insurance Co too did not budge from its earlier close of 420 fils.

Kuwait Real Estate Co fell 0.4 fil to 89 fils and United Real Estate tripped 1.1 fil. National Real Estate Co gave up 0.9 fil and Salhiya Real Estate Co was unchanged at 331 fils. Mazaya Holding took in 0.7 fil on back of over 2 million shares.

The bourse was largely upbeat during the week. The main index closed higher in four of the five sessions gaining 61 points week-onweek. The main index has soared 87 points from start of the month and is trading 686 pts higher year-todate. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.