Boursa Kuwait equities bearish amid selloffs, profit-booking

Banking sector remains highest traded sector

KUWAIT: Boursa Kuwait ended last week in the red zone. The Price Index closed at 6,679.73 points, down by 2.47 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 1.92 percent after closing at 430.70 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 997.37 points down by 2.37 percent. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 15.41 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 21.79 million, whereas trading volume average was 105.82 million shares, recording a decrease of 31.43 percent.

The Boursa three indices, continued recording losses for the second consecutive week, amid control of the selling pressures and the profit collection operations and the quick speculations on many listed stocks, especially the leading ones, that recorded strong increases during the past weeks, which was negatively affected all the Boursa indicators, especially the weighted indices, the most recording to losses by the end of the week. Also, the Boursa is currently witnessing a general state of watch and cautious waiting for the listed companies results for the third quarter of the current year, which ended by the end of last week, as it is expected to disclose its results consecutively on the coming weeks, amid forecasts that most of the outcome will be positive, due to the improvement in the Boursa levels during the last three months.

Moreover, the Boursa lost around KD 474 million from its market cap during the last week (including approximately KD 65 million, the stocks’ value of Eyas for Higher & Technical Education after being delisted from the Boursa last Thursday), to reach by the end of last week to about KD 28.87 billion, down by 1.61 percent from its level on a week earlier where it reached KD 29.35 billion; while the market cap gains contracted since the beginning of the year to reach around KD 3.47 billion or 13.64 percent compared to its value at end of 2016, where it reached then KD 25.41 billion. (Note: The market cap for the listed companies in the primary market is calculated based on the average number of outstanding shares as per the latest available official financial statements).

As per the daily trading activity for the Boursa during the last week; the first session of the week witnessed a grouped decline to the three indices affected by the increased selling operations executed on most of the listed stocks, headed by the leading ones of which prices reached high levels in the previous session. In addition, the market continued recording grouped losses for its three indices on the second session, affected by the continued selling trend that controlled the market and included most of the listed stocks, amid more concentration of selling operations over the leading stocks, which was reflected on the performance of KSX15 Index in particular, that dropped below 1,000 point level, to end the session’s trading at 991.64 point, down by 1.69 percent.

On the mid-week session, the market witnessed a relative improvement in its performance, amid quiet trading and decreased declines, in addition to the return of the purchasing operations on some leading stocks once again, however at weak pace, where the Boursa ended its session with mixed closings for the three indices, as the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to compensate a small part of its losses, after it ended the session recording increases by 0.18 percent and 0.33 percent respectively, while the Price Index continued recording losses, however limited, to end the session down by 0.04 percent.

On Wednesday’s session, the Boursa indices were able to return to the green zone, after the selling pressures that were in control previously, as it witnessed a strong purchasing trend targeted some stocks of which recorded large decreases in the previous sessions, especially the heavy ones that reached tempting purchasing levels, which positively reflected on the market weighted indices, especially KSX-15 that was able to break the 1,000 point level up , to end the session at 1,002.18 point. However, the last session of the week witnessed a strong selling trend that included many listed stocks of different weights and sectors, which negatively affected all the market indices, especially the Price Index that lost around 89 point from its value, the largest loss in around three months, specifically since the 2nd July session of the current year.

For the annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 16.21 percent annual gain compared to its closing in 2016, while the Weighted Index increased by 13.32 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 12.69 percent growth.

Sectors’ indices

All of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the red zone except for one sector. The Health Care sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 10.30 percent to end the week’s activity at 1,510.51 points. The Industrial sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 3.77 percent, closing at 1,790.89 points, followed by the Consumer Services sector, as its index closed at 933.04 points at a loss of 3.56 percent. The Financial Services sector was the least declining as its index closed at 701.06 points with a 0.41 percent decrease. On the other hand, the Consumer Goods sector was last week only gainer, which index grew by 1.01 percent, closing at 1,051.09 points.

Sectors’ activity

The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 214.42 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 40.53 percent of the total market trading volume. The Banks sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 24.63 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 130.30 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 48.17 million or 44.21 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Telecommunications sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was approx. KD 18.45 million representing 16.93 percent of the total market trading value.

Three indices continue to record losses