Kuwait bourse retreats in choppy session, volume swells
KUWAIT CITY, April 5: Kuwait stocks headed south on Monday, snapping the four-day upswing. The All Shares Index dropped 14.87 pts in choppy trade to 5,821.09 points amid profit booking in some of the counters.
The Premier Market slipped 11.27 points to 6,373.93 pts paring the month’s gains to 50 points while Main Market shed 23.83 points. The BK Main 50 skidded 31.11 points to 4,910.11 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for fifth straight session. Over 278 million shares changed hands – up 9 pct from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in red turf. Utilities outpaced the rest with 0.75 percent gain whereas Technology slid 3.62 percent, the worst performer of the day. Financial Services topped in both volume and value with 160.5 million shares traded for KD 14.74 million.
Among the day’s movers, Kuwait Investment Co trimmed last session’s robust gains with 2 fils drop to 778 fils after trading 8.8 million shares whereas Boubyan Bank was up 3 fils at 611 fils. National Investment Co and Imtiaz Investment Co added 3 fils each while Mabanee Co scaled 9 fils to settle at 700 fils. Commercial Bank shed 20 fils.
Zain fell 3 fils to 601 fils after pushing over 2 million shares whereas Ooredoo gave up 5 fils. stc eased 1 fil to 948 fils and logistics major Agility retreated 3 fils to 735 fils. Humansoft Holding Co soared 60 fils to KD 3.800 whereas Mezzan Holding paced 4 fils. Boursa Kuwait Securities sprinted 10 fils to KD 1.151 whereas YIACO Medical tumbled 104 fils.
National Industries Group was unchanged at 187 fils and Gulf Cable dialed down 2 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co dipped 11 fils to 834 fils whereas Al Qurain Petrochemical clipped 2 fils. Jazeera Airways stalled at 710 fils and ALAFCO too did not budge from its earlier close of 210 fils. Integrated Holding tripped 1 fil whereas Aznour took in 2 fils on back of 2.3 million shares.
The market opened firm and ticked up in early trade. The main market scaled the day’s highest level of 5843 points and flipped as selling dented the trading floor sentiment. It drifted sideways past the mid-session and bottomed at 5,814 points in the final minutes before clawing back some of the losses at close.
Top gainer of the day, KFIC sprinted 9.38 percent to 70 fils while NCCI climbed 9 pct to stand close behind. YIACO Medical skidded 19 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Arzan topped the volume with 47.6 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s pullback, the losers outnumbered the winners. 56 stocks advanced whereas 64 closed lower. Of the 134 counters active on Monday, 14 closed flat. 10.297 deals worth KD 38.7 million were transacted during the session.
In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait eased 1 fil to 811 fils after moving 2.5 million shares and is down 29 fils year-to-date while Gulf Bank and Burgan Bank took in 1 fil each to close at 219 fils and 221 fils respectively. Kuwait International Bank inched 1 fil down to 202 fils.
Warba bank fell 2 fils to 237 fils while Ahli United Bank BSC erased 3 fils before settling at 205 fils. Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait and Ahli United Bank Kuwait dialed down 1 fils each.
KIPCO was unchanged at 164 fils whereas Kuwait Investment Co and Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) clipped 2 fils each. International Financial Advisors ticked 1 fil higher to 113 fils on back of 2.3 million shares wheeas Coast Investment gave up 2.5 fils. Arzan Financial Group climbed 4.3 fils to 105 fils and KMEFIC took in 1 fil.
Gulf Investment House and Aayan Leasing added 3 fils each while KAMCO trimmed 0.3 fils. Bayan Investment eased 0.4 fils to 32.4 fils and KAMCO whittled down 0.2 fils. Noor Financial Investment Co slipped 4 fils to 204 fils whereas Tamdeen Investment paced 6 fils.
Kuwait Insurance Co sprinted 10 fils to 410 fils whereas Al Ahleia Insurance Co shed 9 fils. Warba Insurance Co dialed down 2 fils and Gulf Insurance Croup gained 4 fils. Salhia Real Estate darted 15 fils to 542 fils whereas Tamdeen Investment slipped 7 fils.
Kuwait Cement Co ticked 1 fil up to 221 fils whereas Kuwait Portland Cement gave up 4 fils. Kuwait Foundry dashed 11 fils into green and Shuaiba Industrial shed 7 fils. Automated Systems Co fell 3 fils to 80 fils and Educational Holding skidded 15 fils. Burgan Well Drilling Co gave up 4 fils and United Projects Co scaled 7 fils.
The market has been mixed so far during the week adding 8 points in last two sessions. It has gained 45 points from start of the month and is up 249 points year-to-date.