Kuwait’s stock index ekes out modest gains; volume surges

Kuwait Finance House scales 6 fils, KIPCO flat

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 19: Kuwait stocks plodded higher on Tuesday tracking its regional peers. The All Shares Index climbed 10.60 points in volatile session to 5,673.17 pts helped by some of the mid and small caps even as the blue chips remained largely subdued.

The Premier Market rose 4.82 points to 6,191.57 pts while the Main Index scaled 22.82 points. The BK Main 50 sprinted 27.81 points to 4,821.81 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile surged to month’s highest level so far. Over 335 million shares changed hands – a 31 pct jump from the day before.

The sectors closed mixed. Technology outshone the rest 2.56 pct gain whereas Real Estate shed 0.55 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 158.8 million shares while Banking sector was ahead in value with over KD 24 million.

Among the notable gainers, Kuwait Finance House rallied 6 fils to 703 fils on back of 11.8 million shares while Boursa Securities Kuwait was up 8 fils at KD 1.153. Gulf Insurance Co soared 40 fils to 650 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement sprinted 20 fils. International Financial Advisors added 3 fils with brisk trading and Tamdeeen Investment advanced 5 fils.

Zain eased 1 fil to 632 fils after pushing 3.2 million shares at the counter whereas Ooredoo jumped 26 fils to 690 fils taking the month’s gains to 63 fils. stc was up 5 fils at 899 fils whereas Agility gave up 5 fils to settle at 739 fils. Humansoft Holding Co dropped 29 fils to KD 3.650.

KIPCO was unchanged at 159 fils after trading over 1 million shares while KAMCO tripped 1 fil. Kuwait Investment Co and Bayan Investment Co stood pat at 126 fils and 41 fils respectively whereas Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) inched 0.2 fils into green.

KMEFIC dialed up 2 fils and Osoul trimmed 2.9 fils to close at 142 fils. National Investment Co eased 1 fil to 139 fils whereas Noor Financial Investment paused at 182 fils.

The market opened on a tame note and rose sharply higher in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s highest level of 5686 points and drifted south amid a selling bout and recovered again. It gave up some of the gains in the final minutes before closing in the positive turf.

Top gainer of the day, Metal and Recycling Co climbed 7.48 pct to 79 fils while Al Deera Holding scaled 7.44 percent to stand close behind. Thuraya skidded 18.7 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Arzan topped the volume with 70.6 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s gains, the winners outnumbered the losers. 65 stocks advanced whereas 43 closed lower. Of the 137 counters active on Tuesday, 29 closed flat. 11,844 deals worth KD 52.39 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group was unchanged at 185 fils after moving over 6 million shares and Mezzan Holding too did not budge from ite earlier close of 583 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slipped 3 fils to 667 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co took in 1 fil. Integrated Holding erased 4 fils after trading 2.2 million shares while Aznour clipped 1 fil.

Jazeera Airways paused at 731 fils whereas ALAFCO was down 4 fils at 230 fils with a volume of 6.3 million shares. Kuwait Cement Co scaled 7 fils and Gulf Cable inched 1 fil up to 765 fils. Kuwait Foundry Co tripped 1 fil while ACICO Industries edged 0.9 fil into green. NICBM added 3 fils to close at 156 fils.

UPAC slipped 4 fils to 246 fils whereas Combined Group Contracting Co dialed up 2 fils. OSOS added 2.5 fils whereas Soor Fuel and Oula Fuel stalled at 122 fils and 125 fils respectively. Al Rai Media too was unchanged at 47.9 fils while EK Holding clipped 2 fils.

KCPC darted 14 fils to 434 fils whereas Burgan Well Drilling Co eased 1 fil.