Kuwait stocks notch solid gains
National Bank of Kuwait surges 45 fils, KAMCO slips
KUWAIT CITY, April 14: Kuwait stocks notched solid gains on Tuesday as it extended its upswing to third straight session. The All Shares Index soared 151.6 points in a broad advance to 4,829 pts led by blue chips even as overall sentiment turned cheery.
The Premier Market rallied 208.63 pts to 5,236 points while Main Market climbed 37.5 points. The BK 50 Main jumped 68 points to 3,984 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile hit a fresh month’s high. Over 193 million shares changed hands – up 7 pct from the day before.
All sectors barring one closed in green. Banking sector outshone the rest with 4.3 pct gain whereas the only declines, Insurance fell 0.19 percent. Banking sector also continued to dominate in both volume and value with 133.4 million shares transacted for KD 45 million.
Among the prime movers, National Bank of Kuwait surged 45 fils on back of 17.5 million shares to 758 fils taking the month’s gains to 38 fils while Kuwait Finance House rallied 28 fils to 655 fils with brisk trading. Mabanee Co extended last session’s gains with a 8 fils jump to 586 fils.
Zain rose 6 fils to 478 fils on back of over 8 million shares while Ooredoo was up 9 fils at 608 fils. stc paused at 773 fils and Agility climbed 12 fils to 562 fils with a volume of 2.7 million shares. Humansoft Holding partly recouped last session’s slide with a 86 fils gain.
The market opened firm and headed north in early trading. The main index continued to rise amid strong buying in most of the heavyweights and peaked at 4,835 points past the mid-session. It moved sideways thereafter and closed with solid gains.
Top gainer of the day, First Takaful Insurance Co rallied 19.9 percent to 44.5 fils and Al Manar soared 18.9 pct to stand next. Metal and Recycling Co skidded 8.3 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with a whopping 53 million.
Mirroring the day’s gains, the market spread was heavily skewed towards the gainers. 63 stocks advanced whereas 32 closed lower. Of the 107 counters active on Tuesday, 12 closed flat. 9,378 deals worth KD 54.9 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group rallied 7 fils on back of over 9 million shares to 155 fils while Mezzan Holding paced 15 fils to 599 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co rose 4 fils to 458 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical was up 5 fils at 203 fils. Integrated Holding Co climbed 6 fils to 428 fils.
Jazeera Airways jumped 35 fils to 550 fils extended Monday’s gains and
ALAFCO sprinted 18 fils on back of over 1 million shares. Combined Group Contracting rose 6 fils to 200 fils and Inovest added 3 fils. Soor Fuel inched 0.6 fil at Oula Fuel took in 1 fil. Kuwait Foundry Co closed flat at 223 fils.
Kuwait Cement Co and Gulf Cable stood pat at 150 fils and 449 fils respectively whereas Kuwait Portland Cement Co closed 4 fils in green. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co gained 8 fils and ACICO Industries inched 1 fil up. Educational Holding Co jumped 19 fils to 260 fils.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank paced 8 fils on back of 8.9 million shares and Burgan Bank gained 12 fils. Kuwait International Bank added 4 fils and Boubyan Bank was up 12 fils at 487 fils. Al Ahli Bank rose 3 fils to 172 fils and Al Mutahed rallied 13 fils. Warba Bank climbed 6 fils.
KIPCO rose 3 fils to 162 fils and KAMCO trimmed 1.9 fils. Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) added 3.1 fils and Bayan Investment fell 2.7 fils to 33.9 fils. Osoul ended 4 fils in green and Tamdeen Investment shed 18 fils.
The market has been upbeat so far during the week rallying 231 points in last three sessions. It is up 7 points from start of the month and is trading 1,454 pts lower year-to-date.