Kuwait ekes modest gains in volatile trade

Mabanee Co sprints 17 fils, Zain flat

KUWAIT CITY, May 6: Kuwait stocks eked modest gains on Wednesday extending last session’s robust upswing. The All Shares Index rose 13.27 pts in volatile trading to 4,908.67 points helped by select counters in both blue chips and mid-caps.

The Premier Market climbed 14.68 points to 5,288.50 pts while Main Market was up 10.48 points. The BK 50 Main index paced 12.76 points to close at 4,071.22 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for the second straight session. Over 125 million shares changed hands – up 6 pct from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in green territory. Insurance outshone the rest with 1.24 pct gain whereas Basic Materials slid 1.07 percent, the worst performer of the day. Banking sector continued to dominate in both volume and value with 72.4 million shares traded for KD 20.9 million.

Among the day’s standout performers, Kuwait Finance House rallied 6 fils to 587 fils on back of 8.2 million shares while National Bank of Kuwait rose 4 fils to 740 fils after moving 6.5 million shares. Mabanee Co sprinted 17 fils to 604 fils paring the month’s losses to 32 fils.

Zain was unchanged at 520 fils after pushing over 3 million shares and Ooredoo extended last session’s gains with 10 fils rise to 642 fils. stc gave up 11 fils to close at 829 fils and Agility scaled 16 fils on back of 2.3 million shares. Humansoft Holding jumped 57 fils to KD 2.787 and KIPCO gave up 4 fils.

The market opened firm and pulled higher in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s highest level of 4,930 pts and flipped direction to bottom at 4,892 points . It headed north again amid moderate buying in some of the counters and managed to close with small gains.

Top gainer of the day, Osoul rallied 15.38 percent to 105 fils and OSOS climbed 10 pct to stand next. Hayat Telecommunication slipped 5 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank continued to top the volume with 39.4 million shares.

Mirroring the day’s gains, the winner outnumbered the losers. 50 stocks advanced whereas 36 closed lower. Of the 101 counters active on Wednesday, 15 closed flat. 5,974 deals worth KD27.5 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group took in 1 fil on back of 2.6 million shares and Mezzan Holding followed suit. Boubyan Petrochemical Co clipped 1 fil while Al Qurain Petrochemical Co gave up 5 fils before settling at 225 fils. Integrated Holding fell 4 fils to 394 fils.

Jazeera Airways climbed 7 fils to 549 fils and ALAFCO paused at 153 fils, Kuwait Foundry Co dropped 9 fils to 260 fils and KCPC closed 5 fils in red. Combined Group Contracting Co and NICBM dialed up 2 fils each to close at 209 fils and 168 fils respectively.

In the banking sector. Gulf Bank fell 2 fils to 216 fils and Burgan Bank eroded 4 fils after trading 1.4 million shares. Boubyan Bank added 2 fils and Warba Bank sprinted 7 fils on back of over 4 million shares

The market has been mixed far during the week shedding 66 points in last four sessions. It had gained 153 points during whole of April and is trading 1,263 pts lower year-to-date.