Kuwait bourse ends in red after volatile session

Gulf Insurance skids 25 fils, NAPESCO soars

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 15: Kuwait stocks pulled lower on Thursday to end the week on a dour note. The All Shares Index slipped 12.41 points in volatile session to 5,735.23 pts weighed by some of the heavyweights.

The Premier Market dipped 21 points to 6,377.45 points while Main Market rose 5.6 pts to 4,457.71 points, The BK 50 Main index was little changed at 4,519.57 points. The volume turnover meanwhile receded after hitting month’s high in the previous session. Over 311 million shares changed hands – down 32 percent from the day before.

The sectors closed mixed. Oil and Gas outshone the rest with 4.18 percent gain whereas Insurance sector shed 1 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 130.54 million shares and Banking sector continued to dominate with KD 22.3 million.

In the individual shares, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait dropped 6 fils to 890 fils after moving 9.6 million shares and is up 20 fils from start of thee month while Mabanee Co added 3 fils on back of 1.4 million shares. Gulf Insurance dived 25 fils to 575 fils and Kuwait Investment Co shed 10 fils. NAPESCO soared 90 fils to KD 1.170.

Zain inched 1 fils higher to 616 fils after moving over 3 million shares and Ooredoo was up 5 fils at 627 fils. STC rose 5 fils to 855 fils and Agility stood pat at 695 fils with a volume of 5.4 million shares. Humansoft Holding jumped 59 fils to KD 2.881 and Boursa gave up 12 fils to close at KD 1.108.

The market opened weak and fell sharply in early trade. The main index pulled up in a volatile session to peak at 5751 points almost half way into the session . It dipped amid a bout of selling and plumbed the day’s lowest level of 5725 pts before clawing back some of the losses in the final minutes to end in a shallow trough.

Top gainer of the day, REAM soared 17.14 pct to 108 fils and National Ranges shot 10.14 pct up to stand next. Kuwait Investment Co skidded 6.6 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Aayan topped the volume with 24.9 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s drop , the losers outnumbered the winners. 56 stocks advanced whereas 64 closed lower. Of the 133 counters active on Thursday, 13 closed flat.12,849 deals worth KD 46.9 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group eased 1 fil to 201 fils after trading over 6 million shares and Mezzan Holding stood pat at 619 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co was down 3 fils at 577 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co tripped 1 fil. Integrated Holding gained 5 fils and Aznoula ended 1 fil in red.

Jazeera Airways took in 1 fils and ALAFCO fell 2 fils to 165 fils after trading over 2 million shares. OSOS and EK Holding clipped 1 fil each and Bareeq climbed 5.2 fils to 83.2 fils. Oula Fuel ticked 1 fil down to 119 fils and Soor dialed up 2 fils. Inovest ticked 0.8 fil higher to 78.3 fils.

Kuwait Cement Co eased 1 fil to 229 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement scaled 14 fils. Metal and Recycling Co was unchanged at 38.8 fils while ACICO and Educational Holding Co clipped 1 fil each to close at 104 fils and 307 fils respectively. Gulf Petroleum Investment inched 0.2 fils down after moving 8.8 million shares.

Kuwait Foundry Co climbed 4 fils to 259 fils and Gulf Cable erased 3 fils. Burgan Well Drilling Co dialed up 2 fils while Combined Group Contracting Co dialed down 1 fil. PAPCO added 0.9 fil and IFA Hotels and Resorts gave up 0.9 fil to close at 23.9 fils.

Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co erased 0.5 fil and KGL Logistics eased 0.4 fil to 30.1 fils. QIC paused at 72 fils whereas Automated Systems Co trimmed 0.4 fil. KCPC climbed 11 fils to 327 fils and KPPC took in 1 fil.

In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House tripped 1 fil to 708 fils after moving 4.7 million shares and Gulf Bank followed suit with a volume of 7.6 million shares. Kuwait Internatuional Bank paused at 219 fils and Boubyan Bank ended 1 fil in red.

The market was mixed during the week. The main index closed lower in three of the five sessions bit is up 11 points in last five sessions. It has scaled 290 points from start of the month and is down 550 points year-to-date.