Boursa Kuwait mixed amid profit-booking

BAYAN INVESTMENT WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

KUWAIT: Boursa Kuwait ended last week on a mixed board. The Price Index closed at 6,781.02 points, down by 0.11 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index increased by 0.76 percent after closing at 407.70 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 931.35 points up by 0.98 percent. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover increased by 21.01 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 14.44 million, whereas trading volume average was 87.02 million shares, recording an increase of 11.87 percent.

The three Boursa indices closed the week mixed compared to the previous week’s closing, whereas the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to realize gains for the second consecutive week, supported by the continued purchasing and collection operations executed on the leading and operational stocks, especially in the Banks sector, while the Price Index went against the current and ended the week’s trading in the red zone affected by the active speculations and the profit collection operations executed on the small-cap stocks, especially after the increases it realized during the previous period.

The market witnessed such fluctuation amid a continued control of watch and cautious state over many traders, waiting for the listed companies disclosures of its financial results for the first half of the current year, especially that more than half of the legal period given for the listed companies to disclose its fiscal results have passed, which will end by the mid of the next month.

Moreover, the market capitalization for Boursa Kuwait reached by the end of last week around KD 26.96 billion, up by 0.91 percent compared to its level in a week earlier, where it was KD 26.72 billion. On an annual level, the market cap gains for the listed companies in the official market reached 6.12 percent compared to its value at end of year 2016, where it reached then KD 25.41 billion.

As far as the daily trading activity; the Boursa ended the first session of the week with a grouped increase for its three indices, as it was able to do so in light of the increased purchasing operations executed on many listed stocks in the market headed by the leading and operational, in addition to the quick speculation that the operations took as a type, and were executed on the small-cap stocks in particu- lar, executed on the stocks being traded below its par value. The market performance during the beginning of week session came amid a relatively stable cash liquidity levels, whereas the value increased by 1 percent only, after it reached by the end of the session KD 9.15 million. The market witnessed in the second session a fluctuation in the three indices’ closings, whereas the Price and Weighted indices ended the session in the red zone due to the profit collection operations executed on the small-cap stocks, while the KSX-15 Index was able to realize some gain affected by the continuous collection operations that targeted some leading stocks. Such fluctuation came amid a noticeable growth in the trading activity during the session on both levels , the volume or the cash liquidity, as the number of stocks being traded during the session increased by 54 percent, and the trading value grew by 62 percent.

On the mid-week session, the three market indices were able to return once again to close in the green zone, supported by the active trading and the collection operations that targeted many listed stocks headed by the leading stocks in the Banks sector, especially after it disclosed its half year financial results for the period ended on 30 June 2017, and were within the positive range.

On Wednesday’s session, the three market indices diverted its direction downward to end the session in the red zone, as a result to the profit collection operations executed by the traders on many listed stocks of different sectors, which came due to the noticeable increases realized by the stocks in the previous sessions to make the profit collection operations a common sense action to rebuild new positions for the stocks. On the last session of the week, the market indices returned to fluctuate, as the Price Index continued in declining and losing points affected by the profit collection operations executed on some small-cap stocks to end the session losing all its gains realized since the beginning of the week, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to record growth, supported by the return of the purchasing operations on the leading stocks, enhancing by such its weekly gains.

For the annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 17.97 percent annual gain compared to its closing in 2016, while the Weighted Index increased by 7.26 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 5.23 percent growth.

Sectors’ indices

Seven of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other five recorded decreases. Last week’s highest gainer was the Technology sector, achieving 4.64 percent growth rate as its index closed at 696.44 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Financial Services sector’s index closed at 687.91 points recording 1.34 percent increase. The Real Estate sector came in third as its index achieved 1.14 percent growth, ending the week at 955.82 points.

On the other hand, The Health Care sector headed the losers list as its index declined 12.95 percent to end the week’s activity at 1,499.39 points. The Oil & Gas sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 2.67 percent, closing 1,009.07 points, followed by the Consumer Goods sector, as its index closed at 1,073.22 points at a loss of 1.17 percent. The Insurance sector was the least declining as its index closed at 1,005.53 points with a 0.46 percent decrease.

Sectors’ activity

The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 183.44 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 42.16 percent of the total market trading volume. The Real Estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 24.86 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 108.14 million shares.

On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around KD 27.84 million or 38.56 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. KD 16.15 million representing 22.37 percent of the total market trading value.