Kuwait bourse notches modest gains
National Bank of Kuwait sprints 9 fils, Mabanee slips
KUWAIT CITY, April 22: Kuwait stocks saw a modest bounce on Wednesday following the two-day fall. The All Shares Index rose 11.76 points in a volatile session to 4,717.96 points helped by fresh buying in some of the blue chips even as the overall mood remained mixed.
The Premier Market climbed 18.97 points to 5,074 points trimming the month’s losses to 124 points while Main Index clipped 2.71 points. The BK 50 Main inched 1.63 points lower to 3,964 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile shrank after the two-day rise. Over 136 million shares changed hands – down 15 pct from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in green zone. Consumer Services outpaced the rest with 2.62 percent gain whereas Real Estate slipped 0.84 pct, the biggest loser of the day. Banking sector continued to top in both volume and value with 54.4 million shares worth KD 22.5 million.
Among the standout performers, National Bank of Kuwait rebounded 9 fils to 710 fils on back of 8.3 million shares after last session’s hefty losses while Boubyan Bank was up 5 fils at 194 fils paring the month’s losses to 11 fils. Burgan Bank however skidded 13 fils to 194 fils while Mabanee Co was down 10 fils at 560 fils after pushing over 1 million shares.
Zain rose 3 fils to 484 fils on back of 2.4 million shares and Ooredoo slipped 6 fils to 600 fils. stc eased 1 fil to 897 fils and logistics major Agility followed suit to close at 551 fils. Humansoft Holding jumped 58 fils to KD 2.599.
The market opened with a slight gapdown and edged lower in early trade. The main index pulled up sharply to peak at 4,730 points before retreating again to plumb the day’s lowest level of 4,682 pts. It clawed into green amid buying in some of the heavyweights and moved sideways in the second half before closing with small gains.
Top gainer of the day, Marakez spiked 26 pct to 27 fils while Gulf Petroleum Investment soared 18 .3 percent to stand next. KPPC skidded 9.3 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and GPI also topped the volume with 39.7 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s gains, the winners slighty outnumbered the losers. 47 stocks advanced whereas 42 closed lower. Of the 100 counters active on Wednesday, 11 closed flat. 6,417 deals worth KD 27.9 million were transacted during the session.
The market has been mixed so far during the week and has shed 28 points in last four sessions. It has dipped 102 points from start of the month and is trading 1,564 pts lower year-to-date.