Kuwait index rebounds, volume rises
National Bank of Kuwait rallies 22 fils, NAPESCO skids
KUWAIT CITY, May 5: Kuwait stocks swung higher on Tuesday stemming the two-day decline. The All Shares Index scaled 65.04 pts to close at 4,896.40 points driven by renewed buying in some of the heavyweights even as the broader sentiment turned upbeat.
The Premier Market rallied 91.3 pts to 5,273.81 points paring the month’s losses to 83 points while Main Market rose 12.34 pts to 4,151.06 points. BK 50 Main was up 18.5 points. The volume turnover meanwhile saw modest bounce after slipping below the 100 million mark in the previous session. Over 118 million shares changed hands – a 24 pct rise from Monday.
The sectors closed mostly in the green turf. Telecommunication outshone the rest with 2.18 percent gain whereas Oil and Gas slumped 4.89 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Banking sector continued to dominate in both volume and value with over 53 million shares worth KD 16.6 million.
Among the prime movers, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 22 fils to 736 fils on back of 5.9 million shares while Kuwait Finance House scaled 6 fils after pushing 7.3 million shares. Gulf Bank was up 7 fils at 218 fils with a volume of 4.4 million shares.
Zain climbed 11 fils to 520 fils on back of 3.5 million shares and Ooredoo scaled 13 fils to close at 632 fils. stc bounced 19 fils from Monday’s trough to close at 840 fils while logistics major Agility sprinted 12 fils to 641 fils after moving 1.4 million shares. Humansoft Holding jumped 30 fls to KD 2.730 and Mabanee added 2 fils.
The market opened firm and clawed up in early trade. The main index plateaued almost an hour into the session and revved up again past the mid-session amid strong buying in select counters before closing with moderate gains.
Top gainer of the day, Mashaer rallied 9.9 pct to 58.6 fils and Warba Insurance Co climbed 9.5 pct to stand close behind. FutureKids skidded 14 percent the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank continued to top the volume with 21.8 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s gains, the winners vastly outnumbered the losers. 58 stocks advanced whereas 28 closed lower. Of the 103 counters active on Tuesday, 17 closed flat. 6,522 deals worth KD 24.65 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group rallied 6 fils to 176 fils on back of over 4 million shares while Mezzan Holding stood pat at 576 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co too was unchanged at 492 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co followed suit to end at 230 fils. Combined Group Contracting Co gained 7 fils.
Jazeera Airways slid 23 fils to 542 fils after trading 1.3 million shares while NAPESCO tumbled 107 fils to 993 fils. ACICO Industries fell 3 fils to 114 fils and Gulf Cable added 3 fils. Kuwait Cement Co scaled 11 fils on back of 1.7 million shares and Kuwait Foundry Co closed 6 fils higher.
The market has been mixed far during the week shedding 79 points in last three sessions. It had gained 153 points during whole of April and is trading 1,276 pts lower year-todate.