Boursa Kuwait equities remain mixed

BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

Boursa Kuwait ended last week with mixed performance. The Price Index closed at 6,752.79 points, down by 1.48 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.85 percent after closing at 402.41 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 906.38 points declining by 0.47 percent. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 22.61 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 14.82 million, whereas trading volume average was 130.14 million shares, recording a drop of 25.68 percent.

The three Boursa indices ended the week’s trading in the red zone, where the market witnessed an increased selling and profit collection operations on many listed stocks headed by the small-cap ones, which negatively affected the Price Index in particular, the most losing index by the end of the week compared to its peers the Weighted and KSX-15. Such performance came in light of a noticeable decrease in the trading indicators for both the value or the volume, where it reached on last Monday’s session its second lowest level during the current year, specifically on 2nd January session. Also, the Price Index reached its lowest level in about two month, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices reached its lowest level since last January.

Moreover, the market is watching for the listed companies results for the first quarter of the current year, where only 42 company disclosed its results out of 177 listed company in the primary market, meaning that more than 75 percent of the companies did not announce its results despite passing more than a month of the legal disclosing period which is defined by one and one half month. The disclosed companies realized around KD 330.71 million net profits, up by 11.11 percent for the same companies’ profits for the same period of 2016, where it reached then K.D. 297.63 million.

As per the daily trading activity, the Boursa Kuwait initiated the first session of the last week with mixed closing for the three indices, where the Price Index recorded a limited decline affected by the selling pressures and the profit collection operations executed on some small-cap stocks, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to realize good gains by the end of the session supported by the random purchasing operations that targeted some leading and operational stocks especially in the Banks sector. The next session witnessed a drop in all the indices due to the losses recorded by many listed stocks of both leading and small-cap, which negatively affected the trading levels that recorded noticeable drop by the end of the session, where the value decreased by 40 percent approximately, while the volume dropped by about 34 percent.

On the mid-week session, the Boursa indices returned to fluctuate, as the Price Index continued recording losses for the third consecutive session as a result to the continued selling operations executed on the small-cap stocks during this period, while the Weighted Index joined in the red zone after recording some loss by the end of the session, however KSX15 went against the current and ended the session in the green zone. The Boursa was able on Wednesday to break its downward direction as the three indices were able to return to the green zone once again, supported by the return of the active speculation, that concentrated on the small-cap stocks, in addition to the collection operations witnessed by the leading stocks, before the market returns back to the loss zone on Thursday’s session, where all its indices recorded different losses by the end of the session as a result to the strong profit collection operations executed on many stocks.

The market capitalization reached by the end of the last week KD 26.51 billion, down by 0.81 percent compared to its level in a week earlier, where it reached then KD 26.73 billion. On an annual level, the gains of the market cap of the listed companies since the beginning of the year contracted to reach 4.35 percent compared to its value at end of 2016, where it was then KD 25.41 billion. For the annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 17.48 percent annual gain compared to its closing in 2016, while the Weighted Index increased by 5.87 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 2.41 percent growth.

Sectors’ Indices

Eight of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, while the other four recorded increases. The Consumer Services sector headed the losers list as its index declined 4.01 percent to end the week’s activity at 890.99 points. The Oil & Gas sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 3.72 percent, closing 1,045.44 points, followed by the Technology sector, as its index closed at 681.62 points at a loss of 3.45 percent. The Consumer Goods sector was the least declining as its index closed at 1,120.61 points with a 0.19 percent decrease. On the other hand, Last week’s highest gainer was the Health Care sector, achieving 4.81 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,405.03 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Telecommunications sector’s index closed at 632.98 points recording 1.35 percent increase. The Insurance sector came in third as its index achieved 1.09 percent growth, ending the week at 1,063.13 points.

Sectors’ Activity

The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 222.96 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 34.26 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 29.02 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 188.84 million shares. On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around K.26.92 million or 36.33 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was approx. K.D 13.09 million representing 17.66 percent of the total market trading value. —Prepared by: Studies & Research Department - Bayan Investment Co.