Kuwait stock market wraps up week on positive note
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 20: Kuwait stocks eked out small gains on Wednesday as it wrapped up the holiday-shortened week on a positive note. The All Shares Index rose 20.65 points to 7,537.05 pts helped by renewed buying support in some of the counters.
The Premier Market climbed 17.58 points to 7,537.05 pts and Main Market scaled 28.40 points taking the month’s gain to 282 pts. The BK Main 50 index was up 10.73 points to 6,073.26 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile saw a modest rise following Tuesday’s drop. Over 379 million shares changed hands – up 14 pct from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in red. Consumer Discretionary continued to outshine the rest with 1.17 pct gain while Consumer Services shed 0.73 percent, the biggest loser of the session. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 151.9 million shares and the sector was also ahead in value with
KD 17.4 million.
In the individual shares, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 6 fils on back of 2.3 million shares to 954 fils and National Investment Co paced 5 fils after pushing over 3 million shares. Humansoft Holding sprinted 20 fils to KD 3.314 taking the month-to-date gains to 16 fils while Boursa Kuwait Securities soared a whopping 53 fils.
Zain was unchanged at 600 fils after pushing 1.3 million shares whereas Ooredoo tripped 1 fil before settling at 682 fils. stc to eased 1 fil to 861 fils whereas logistics major Agility dialed up 2 fils on back of over 1 million shares. United Projects Co jumped 24 fils to 292 fils while NAPESCO sprinted 9 fils to 810 fils.
Fell
KIPCO fell 1 fil to 157 fils whereas Al Imtiaz Investment stood pat at 135 fils. Mabanee Co added 1 fil and Mezzan Holding gave up 7 fils to close at 635 fils. Ajial Real Estate climbed 20 fils to 290 fils whereas Tamdeen Real Estate Co slipped 4 fils to 400 fils.
KAMCO climbed 4 fils to 144 fils.
National Industries Group rose 1 fil to 245 fils with a volume of 1.5 million shares and Gulf Cable climbed 7 fils to 859 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co skidded 11 fils to 917 fils whereas Al Qurain Petrochemical Co dialed up 1 fil. Jazeera Airways extended last session’s gain with a 20 fils jump to 997 fils on back of over 3 million shares and ALAFCO paced 4 fils.
The market opened strong and pulled higher in early trade. The main market see sawed in a medium range before slipping into red and plumbed the day’s lowest level of 6,961 pts past the mid-session. It clawed back in the final hour to close with modest gains.
Top gainer of the day, Munshaat soared 17.65 pct to 74 fils while RKWC scaled 10.43 percent to stand next. GFC skidded 25.25 pct, the steepest decliner of the day while GPI topped the volume with 43.5 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s gain, the winners outnumbered the losers. 68 stocks advanced whereas 54 closed lower. Of the 146 counters active on Wednesday, 24 closed flat. 13,442 deals worth KD 50.54 million were transacted during the session.
Tripped
In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House was unchanged at 823 fils and Gulf Bank followed suit to close at 240 fils after pushing 3.7 million shares. Boubyan Bank stood pat at 770 fils whereas Burgan Bank tripped 1 fil. Kuwait International Bank stalled at 224 fils . Ahli United Bank BSC and Warba Bank dialed up 1 fil whereas Ahli United Bank Kuwait paused at 325 fils. Al Ahli Bank closed 3 fils higher at 247 fils.
Kuwait Cement Co inched 1 fil higher to 246 fils whereas Kuwait Portland Cement paused at 954 fils. Metal and Recycling Co and Shuaiba Industrial trimmed 1 fil each while HEISC gave up 4 fils before ending at 484 fils. Kuwait Foundry Co climbed 7 fils to 390 fils while ACICO Industries was unchanged at 125 fils. NICBM paced 4 fils whereas Equipment Holding erased 4.4 fils before ending at 57.5 fils.
Educational Holding rose 3 fils to 803 fils whereas Independent Petroleum Group gave up 9 fils. Automated Systems Co and Sultan Centre took in 1 fil each whereas Arabi Group Holding clipped 1 fils to close a 152 fils. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co crept 0.3 fil higher to 54.7 fils and NCCI added 1.1 fils on back of 1.2 million shares. Egypt Kuwait Holding gained 8 fils.
Gulf Franchising Holding skidded 25 fils to 74 fils and Tahssilat closed 3.3 fils in red. Burgan Company For Well Drilling fell 2 fils to 161 fils while Integrated Holding Co and Aznour trimmed 1 fil each. Combined Group Contracting Co was unchanged at 357 fils whereas Advanced Technology Co took in 1 fil. Hayat Communications Co paced 4.9 fils.
The market was upbeat during the week. The main index closed higher in all the four sessions, scaling 89 points week-on-week. It has gained 111 points from start of the month and is up 1429 points year-to-date.