Kuwait bourse mixed as volume drops

Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week with mixed performance. The Price Index closed at 5,268.45 points, up by 0.12% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 1.22% after closing at 358.97 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 840.79 points down by 1.98%. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover increased by 0.61%, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 12.94 million, whereas trading volume average was 141.28 million shares, recording a decrease of 7.14%.

As per the stock market daily performance; the Price Index was able to compensate a small portion of its losses recorded a week earlier, while the Weighted and KSX-15 Indices recorded different losses due to the selling pressures and the profit collection operations executed by some investors on many stocks. Also, the fear and cautious state witnessed by the market from having some stocks being banned from trading for being late in disclosing its 2015 financial results, contributed to shifting many investors to liquidating their stocks, which caused the market to decline in general in most of the week’s sessions.

Moreover, the stock market initiated its first session of the week with grouped losses to the three indicators, among selling pressures and profit collection operations executed on many large-cap and small-cap stocks, in addition to a noticeable refrain from purchase by some traders, which caused the liquidity levels to drop. The stock market indicators con- tinued its decline in the second session of the week, however limited, in light of the continued control of the selling pressures, that the low-priced and leading stocks were subject to, on the trading activity in the market, with a continued contraction in the cash liquidity and decrease in the trading activity in general, especially the volume, which dropped by 30.34% by the end of the session.

The market continued its downward direction in the mid-week session, to close at different losses for the three indicators, whereas the negative performance of some leading stocks affected KSX-15 Index’s performance, which declined the most, while the results of the annual general assembly meetings held during the same day and the distributions announced contributed to increasing the liquidity level in the market despite the weak trading activity. On Wednesday’s session, the three market indicators were able to redirect its performance and close in the green zone, affected by the random purchasing operations trend executed on some leading stocks after being subject to strong selling pressures in the previous sessions, in addition to the quick speculative operations executed on the low-priced stocks, which had a positive impact, and increased the trading activity especially the volume by 29.17%. Furthermore, the market was able in the last session of the week to relatively hold by the purchasing activity witnessed by most of the smallcap stocks in the last minutes of the session, whereas the Price and Weighted indices closed in the green zone, however the selling pressures witnessed by the leading stocks, especially in the Telecommunication sector, pushed KSX-15 Index to close in the red zone.

On the other hand, the number of companies that disclosed its 2015 financial results reached 130 company by the end of last week, representing 69.15% of the total 188 listed company in the official market, realizing about KD 1.55 billion, up by 1.94% from 2014 results for the same companies, where it was around KD 1.52 billion.

As far as KSE annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 6.17% annual loss compared to its closing in 2015, while the weighted index decreased by 5.95%, and the KSX15 recorded 6.62% loss.

Sectors’ Indices

Six of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other six recorded declines. Last week’s highest gainer was the Technology sector, achieving 7.86% growth rate as its index closed at 962.66 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Oil & Gas sector’s index closed at 792 points or 1.81% increase. The Industrial sector came in third as its index achieved 1.75% growth, ending the week at 990.75 points. The least growing sector was the Insurance sector, as its index closed at 1,087.68 points at a growth of 0.65%.

On the other hand, the Telecommunication sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 3.32% to end the week’s activity at 608.58 points. The Financial Services sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 1.65%, closing at 565.80 points, the least declining sector was the Real Estate sector, as its index closed at 830.85 points at a loss of 0.21%.

Sectors’ Activity

The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 219.87 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 31.12% of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 28.93% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 204.38 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 24.17 million or 37.37% 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 10.15 million representing 15.69% of the total market trading value.

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