Boursa Kuwait continues bearish trend

Boursa Kuwait ended January in the red zone. The Price Index closed at 6,783.08 points, down by 0.72 percent compared to the closings of the month before, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.79 percent after closing at 424.02 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 964.08 points decreasing by 2.16 percent. Furthermore, last month’s average turnover decreased by 15.36 percent, compared to the preceding month, reaching KD 45.60 million, whereas trading volume average was 466.16 million shares, recording a decrease of 25.99 percent.

The three indices of Boursa Kuwait recorded limited losses by the end of the month, except for KSX-15 Index that recorded relatively large losses, as it was subject to the selling pressures which included many traded stocks, especially the leading and operational ones, the most declining during the month, which was reflected on the Weighted and KSX-15 indices’ performance, the most losing indices compared to the Price Index. Also, the market witnessed at sometimes a fluctuated performance, due to the speculative operations that were not absent from affecting the market performance, and concentrated on the small-cap stocks of the market.

On the other hand, the Boursa Kuwait lost during February around KD 324.16 million of its market value, as it reached by the end of the month about KD 28.17 billion, down by 1.14 percent from its value at end of last January, where it reached then around KD 28.49 billion.

Price Index Performance

The Price Index witnessed a positive performance during most of the daily sessions of the month, despite its decline on the monthly level, where it was able to realize gain in 11 days out of 19 trading day of the month, as it initiated the month with a slight increase in the first session, to be able to reach its highest level during the month at 6,847.96 point. The Index witnessed thereafter a fluctuated performance with a downward direction in general, to end the 9th February session at 6,582.75 point, its lowest level of the month, down by 3.65 percent compared with January’s closing. The Index was able in the next few sessions to compensate a large part of its losses through a fluctuated performance, within the positive range however, but could not realize growth on the monthly level until the end of the month, where its its monthly losses reached 0.72 percent.

Weighted Index Performance

The Weighted Index’s performance did not much differ than the Price Index, as it was able to increase in 11 sessions out of 19 sessions held during the month, where the Index witnessed during the first half of the month a fluctuated performance, with a downward trend in general, to end the session of 13th February at 419.05 point, its lowest level of the month, where its losses reached since the beginning of the month 1.95 percent. However, the Index was able thereafter to compensate all its month’s losses through realizing consecutive gains during the next couple of sessions, recording its highest closing during the month on 15th February, with an increase of 0.37 percent compared to January closing. The Weighted Index returned after to the red zone and recorded losses during most of the second half of the month’s sessions, to lose by this all its gains and end the month’s sessions with loss of 0.79 percent.

The KSX-15 Index ended the month of February’s trading with loss of 2.16 percent, despite its ability to record gains in 12 sessions out of 19 trading session during the last month. The Index was able in the first session of the month to realize an increase of 0.19 percent to close at 987.30 point, its highest level during the month, while it witnessed thereafter a fluctuated performance until it reached on 13th February its lowest closing level of the month and closed at 952.12 point, where its losses reached 3.38 percent compared to January’s closing. The Index was able however in the second half of the month to compensate a part of its losses, through a fluctuated performance between up and down, to end the month’s trading at 964.08 point.

For the annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 18.01 percent annual gain compared to its closing in 2016, while the weighted index increased by 11.56 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 8.93 percent growth.

Six of KSE’s sectors ended last month in the red zone, while the other six recorded increases. The Telecommunications sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 4.58 percent to end the month’s activity at 663.30 points. The Real Estate sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 4.38 percent, closing at 1,058.38 points, followed by the Consumer Services sector, as its index closed at 971.52 points at a loss of 2.91 percent. The Oil & Gas sector was the least declining as its index closed at 946.12 points with a 1.33 percent decrease.

On the other hand, last month’s highest gainer was the Health Care sector, achieving 17.79 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,398.05 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Basic Materials sector’s index closed at 1,308.70 points recording 4.31 percent increase. The Banks sector was the least growing as its index closed at 977.67 points with a 0.68 percent increase.

Sectors’ Activity

The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume during the last month of 3.44 billion shares changing hands, representing 38.81 percent of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 31.86 percent of last month’s total trading volume, with a total of 2.82 billion shares On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 211.09 million or 24.36 percent of last month’s total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last month turnover of KD 200.86 million representing 23.18 percent of the total market trading value.-Prepared by the Studies & Research Department, Bayan Investment Co.