Kuwait stock market heads north in range bound trade
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 19: Kuwait stocks pulled higher on Tuesday extending its winning spree to sixth day on the trot. The All Shares Index climbed 32 points in range bound trade to 6955.94 pts paced by some of the heavyweights and mid-caps.
The Premier Market rose 26.72 points to 7519.47 pts taking the month’s gains to 23 pts while Main Market scaled 45.22 points. The BK Main 50 index jumped 37.18 pts to 6062.53 points. The volume turnover meanwhile dipped following he four-day rise. Over 332 million shares changed hands – a 34 pct drop from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in green. Consumer Discretionary jumped 2.39 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Energy shed 0.30 pct, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 127.7 million and the sector was also ahead in value with KD 15.39 million.
Among the standouts, Kuwait Finance House extended last session’s gains with 6 fils jump to 823 fils after pushing 4.8 million shares while Mabanee Co paced 8 fils taking the yearto-date gains to 116 fils. Boursa Kuwait Securities jumped 37 fils to KD 1.885 following Monday’s upswing. Jazeera Airways took a whopping 62 fils leap to 977 fils and YIACO Medical sprinted 22 fils.
Zain inched 1 fil higher to 600 fils and Ooredoo scaled 17 fils. stc dialed up 2 fils before ending at 862 fils and logistics major Agility added 1 fil on back of 1.22 million shares. Sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait and Gulf Bank were unchanged at 948 fils and 240 fils respectively.
KIPCO dialed up 2 fils whereas National Investment Co stood pat at 201 fils. Al Imtiaz Investment clipped 2 fils and Tamdeen Investment paced 7 fils to close at 406 fils. KMEFIC slipped 7 fils to 138 fils whereas Humansoft Holding stood pat at KD 3.294.
National Industries Group was unchanged at 244 fils after moving 3.8 million shares whereas Gulf Cable sprinted 15 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co gave up 7 fils to close at 928 fils whereas Al Qurain Petrochemical Co was up 4 fils at 378 fils. ALAFCO eased 1 fil to 235 fils and Mezzan Holding closed 3 fils in green. Integrated Holding dialed up 2 fils after pushing over 1 million shares while Aznour added 1 fil.
The market opened firm and rose sharply in early trade. The main index continued to rise in choppy session to scale the day’s highest level of 6958 points past the mid-session and moved sideways in final hour to close with moderate gains.
Top gainer of the day, RKWC vaulted 26 percent to 15 fils respectively while PAPCO scaled 9.9 pct to stand next. KMEFIC skidded 4.83 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and AAN topped the volume with 36 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s gains, the market spread was skewed towards the winners. 80 stocks advanced whereas 43 closed lower. Of the 143 counters active on Tuesday, 20 closed flat. 13,352 deals worth KD 50.9 million were transacted during the session.
In the banking sector, Burgan Bank inched 1 fil higher to 234 fils on back of 2.4 million shares whereas Kuwait International Bank paused at 224 fils. Boubyan Bank added 2 fils while Waba Bank closed 3 fils in green with brisk trading. Ahli United Bank BSC dialed up 1 fil and Al Ahli Bank followed suit. Ahli United Bank Kuwait paced 3 fils.
Kuwait Investment Co rose 2 fils to 296 fils while Securities House and Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) took in 1 fil each. Gulf Investment House gained 4 fils and KAMCO trimmed 1fil.
Kuwait Cement Co inched 1 fil higher to 245 fils whereas Shuaiba Industrial gave up 4 fils. HEISC dialed down 2 fils while Metal and Recycling Co closed 2 fils in green. Kuwait Foundry Co and ACICO Industries paused at 383 fils and 125 fils respectively. Hilal Cement jumped 15 fils to 178 fils and NICBM took in 1 fil. NCCI rose 2 fils to 180 fils on back of 2.2 million shares while Warba Capital paced 4 fils.
Educational Holding Co climbed 10 fils to 800 fils whereas Kuwait National Cinema held ground at 850 fils. Sultan Centre trimmed 1 fil and Arabi Group Holding closed 3 fils in green. Automated Systems Co paused at 100 fils while NAPESCO and KCPC dialed up 1 fil each. Oula Fuel Marketing dialed down 1 fil.
Burgan Company For Well Drilling took in 1 fil and Combined Group Contracting Co sprinted 10 fils. PAPCO climbed 8 fils to 88.5 fils while OSOS Holding Group and United Projects Co gained 11 fils each. Mashaer Holding tripped 1.9 fils and Egypt Kuwait Holding paced 11 fils. Inovest BSC was unchanged at 110 fils.
The market has been upbeat so far during the week scaling 69 points in past three sessions. It has gained 91 points from start of the month and is up 1409 points year-to-date.