Kuwait index extends gains, volume rises
NBK rallies 8 fils, Humansoft Holding slips
By John Mathews
KUWAIT CITY, May 18: Kuwait stocks moved higher on Monday extending last session’s upswing. The All Shares Index climbed 38.37 points in slightly volatile session to 4825.37 pts paced by some of the blue chips.
The Premier Market rallied 49.26 points to 5196.30 pts while Main Market climbed 16.58 points to 4095.92 pts. The BK 50 Main index was up 24.54 points to 3985.04 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for the second straight session. Over 106 million shares changed hands – a 19 pct increase from the day before.
All sectors closed in green turf. Basic Materials outshone the rest with 1.27 percent gain while Telecommunication stood next with 0.87 pct rise. Banking sector continued to top in both volume and value with over 71 million shares worth KD 18.4 million.
Among the standouts, National Bank of Kuwait rallied 9 fils to 735 fils on back of 3.9 million shares while Kuwait Finance House extended Sunday’s gains with 7 fils jump to 587 fils and the counter pushed 8.7 million shares during the session. Kuwait Foundry Co climbed 10 fils to 230 fils.
Zain rose 4 fils to 522 fils on back of 1.9 million shares and Ooredoo followed suit to end at 627 fils. STC sprinted 13 fils to 835 fils recouping last session’s losses while Agility climbed 8 fils to 633 fils after pushing 1.8 million shares. Humansoft Holding however dropped 31 fils to KD 2.610.
The market opened firm and pushed higher in early trade. The main index sagged slightly before heading north again and scaled the day’s highest level of 4841 points almost half way into the session. It gave up some of the gains in the second half and closed with moderate gains.
Top gainer of the day, Sultan Centre rallied 8.9 pct to 59.8 fils and National Investment Co scaled 8.3 percent to stand next. Al Deera Holding skidded 7.1 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with 42.5 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s gains, the winners outnumbered the losers. 54 stocks advanced whereas 26 closed lower. Of the 87 counters active on Monday, 17 closed flat. 5965 deals worth KD 106 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group rose 4 fils to 162 fils on back of over 4 million shares and Mezzan Holding followed suit to wind up to 569 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co sprinted 9 fils to 492 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co dialed up 2 fils. Educational Holding Group gave up 6 fils to settle at 270 fils.
Jazeera Airways was unchanged at 528 fils off early highs and ALAFCO clipped 2 fils. Combined Group Contracting Co and NAPESCO took in 2 fils each whereas Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipping Co fell 2 fils. ACICO Industries slipped 5 fils to 109 fils and Kuwait Cement Co added 4 fils. Gulf Cable closed 3 fils in green.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank fell 3 fils to 206 fils and Kuwait International Bank dialed up 2 fils on back of over 4 million shares. Burgan Bank eased 1 fils after trading 4.4 million shares and Boubyan Bank closed 3 fils in green
The market has been upbeat so far during the week gaining 125 points in last two sessions. It is down 150 points from start of the month and has retreated 1475 points year-to-date.