Kuwaiti stocks wind up in red, volume retreats
Mabanee dips 28 fils, NBK ticks up
KUWAIT CITY, April 8: Kuwait stocks edged lower on Wednesday snapping the three-day upswing. The All Shares Index fell 4.95 pts in choppy session to 4,718.3 points weighed by some of the blue chips even as the broader sentiment remained mixed.
The Premier Market slipped 10.34 pts to 5,083 points taking the month’s losses to 105 points while Main Market added a modest 5.8 points. BK 50 Index sprinted 24.54 points to 3,904 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile fell after hitting month’s lowest on Wednesday. Over 140 million shares changed hands – a 12 pct drop from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in the red. Technology outshone the rest with 1.94 pct gain whereas Real Estate shed 2 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Banking sector continued to top in both volume and value with 85.9 million shares worth KD 23.7 million.
Among the day’s losers, Mabanee Co dipped 28 fils to 607 fils after pushing over 2 million shares and is down 26 fils from start of the year while Humansoft Holding skidded 26 fils to KD 2.449. Mezzan Holding gave up 6 fils before settling at 569 fils.
Zain fell 3 fils to 474 fils with a volume of 474 fils while Ooredoo extended last session’s losses to close at 589 fils. STC climbed 19 fils to 769 fils and Agility was down 9 fils at 570 fils after pushing 7.4 million shares.
The market opened firm and spiked briefly in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s highest level of 4,745 points and pivoted south as selling pressure on select counters. It bottomed at 4,709 pts in the final hour before paring back some of the losses at close.
Top gainer of the day, Danah jumped 8.18 percent to 11.9 fils while Investors Holding rose 4.4 percent to stand next. First Dubai slid 9.2 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United
Bank topped the volume with 39.9 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s downtick, the losers slightly outnumbered the gainers. 38 stocks advanced whereas 41 closed lower. Of the 94 counters active on Wednesday 15 closed flat. 5,536 deals worth KD 26.2 million were transacted.
National Industries Group took in 1 fil on back of 1.4 million shares while Integrated Holding Co stood pat at 425 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slipped 5 fils to 456 fils an Al Qurain Petrochemical Co edged 1 fil into green.
Jazeera Airways climbed 8 fils to 504 fils and ALAFCO added 3 fils. Soor Fuel and KCPC slipped 5 fills each to close at 255 fils and 98 fils respectively while Combined Group Contracting Co ticked 1 fil higher. Automated Systems Co dialed up 1.3 fils.
Kuwait Portland Cement skidded 40 fils to 815 fils while Kuwait Cement Co paused at 151 fils. Kuwait Foundry Co gave up 5 fils and ACICO
Industries took in 1 fil. Educational Holding Group shed 10 fils and FutureKid added 3.3 fils. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co clipped 1.9 fils.
In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait dialed up 2 fils while Gulf Bank followed suit to close at 204 fils after trading over 9 million shares. Kuwait International Bank was flat at 191 fils with brisk trading. Boubyan Bank gave up 3 fils.
Kuwait Finance House ticked 1 fil higher to 624 fils on back of 9.8 million shares while Warba Bank and Al Ahli Bank added 2 fils each. Al Mutahed inched 1 fil up to 253 fils.
KIPCO and International Financial Advisors paused at 165 fils and 38 fils respectively whereas KAMCO slipped 4.5 fils to 70.5 fils. Tamdeen Real Estate Co shed 15 fils.
The market has been largely upbeat so far during the week adding 17 points in the last four sessions. It had skidded 1,250 points during whole of March and is trading 1,519 pts lower year-to-date.