Boursa Kuwait ends week in green zone

The Price Index closed at 6,454.16 points, up by 0.72% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index increased by 1.91% after closing at 409.07 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 936.86 points up by 2.40%. Furthermore, the week’s average daily turnover increased by 91.09%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 15.18 million, whereas trading volume average was 108.25 million shares, recording an increase of 80.69%.

The Market was able to end the first trading week of the new year with mixed gains for its three indices, to continue its positive performance that it has been witnessing during the last few weeks, supported by the noticeable purchasing activity on many listed stocks of both leading or small-cap ones, in light of the noticed increase in the cash liquidity levels as the trading value reached its highest level since last November, which came as a result to the increased purchasing operations on the leading stocks in particular, especially in the Banks sector which acquired the highest portion of the cash liquidity during the last week.

Also, the Boursa recorded market gains over K.D. 500 million during three sessions only, as the market capitalization for the total listed stocks in the Regular Market reached by the end of last week K.D. 27.44 billion, up by 1.87% of its value recorded at the last week of the previous year, where it was K.D. 26.94 billion. (Note: The market capitalization for the listed companies in the Regular Market is calculated based on the average number of outstanding shares as per the latest available official financial statements). As far as the daily trading activity; the first session of the week witnessed a steep decrease in the three market indices, especially the Price Index which dropped sharply and recorded losses reached around 1.5%, affected by the heavy selling operations witnessed by the Market and concentrated on the small-cap stocks.

In addition, the Market was able during the next two sessions of the week to compensate its losses and its three indices were able to transfer to the green zone, supported by the return of the purchasing operations where the leading and the operational stocks acquired a great portion of, thus was reflected on all the Market indices’ performance, headed by the KSX-15 Index, which was able to add about 22 point to its value in three sessions only, to end the week with gains of 2.40%. On the other hand, the last week witnessed a price increase of 83 stock out of 157 listed stock in the Regular Market, compared to the previous week, while the prices of 41 stock dropped, and 33 stock remained with no change.

Sectors’ Indices

Eight of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, three recorded declines, whereas the Health Care sector’s index closed with no change from the week before. Last week’s highest gainer was the Consumer Goods sector, achieving 3.52% growth rate as its index closed at 851.31 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Banks sector’s index closed at 937.18 points recording 2.69% increase. The Telecommunications sector came in third as its index achieved 2.25% growth, ending the week at 570.97 points. On the other hand, the Technology sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 1.57% to end the week’s activity at 471.04 points. The Consumer Services sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 1.56%, closing at 887.04 points, followed by the Insurance sector, as its index closed at 1,093.61 points at a loss of 1.12%.

Sectors’ activity

The Banks sector dominated a total trade volume of around 123.89 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 38.15% of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 28.69% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 93.16 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.D 21.56 million or 47.34% 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 6.78 million representing 14.89% of the total market trading value.