Kuwait’s buoyant week ends with modest gains
NBK rallies 17 fils; Jazeera Airways down
KUWAIT CITY, July 5: Kuwait stocks scaled more heights on Thursday to wind up the week on a buoyant note. The All Shares Index climbed 34.03 pts in volatile trade to 5,087.64 pts after breaching the 5,000 mark in the previous session. Some of the blue chips continued to shine amid strong buying.
The Premier Market jumped 48.8 pts to 5,180.40 points while Main Market rose 7.37 pts taking the month’s gains to 56 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile rose from the fifth straight session. Over 165 million shares changed hands — up 6.4 pct from last session.
The sectors closed mostly in green. Basic materials outpaced the rest with 2 pct gain whereas technology dipped 5.5 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, financial services garnered the highest market share of 32.6 percent and banks trailed with 29.7 pct contribution.
Among the notable gainers, National Bank of Kuwait extended its gains with 17 fils rally to 790 fils on back of 8.6 million shares and Kuwait Finance House was up 3 fils at 585 fils with heavy trading after notching robust gain on Wednesday. KIPCO rose 4 fils to 248 fils.
Zain ticked 1 fil up to 474 fils with a volume of 7.4 million and Ooredoo extended its losses from the previous session with 5 fils drop. Kuwait Telecommunications Co ( VIVA) gained 13 fils and Agility inched 1 fil up on back of over 2 million shares.
Gulf Bank clipped 1 fil and Warba Bank took in 1 fil. The bank’s profits soared 115 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2018 while total revenues jumped 54 pct quarter-on-quarter to KD 18.77 mln.
Sagged
The market opened firm and rose sharply in early trade. The main index sagged briefly before scaling the day’s highest level of 5,109 pts ahead of the mid-session. It pulled back slightly before trading sideways in the second half and closed with modest gains.
Top gainer of the day, Al Aqaria spiked 9.6 pct to 30.7 fils and Sanam Real Estate climbed 7 pct to stand next. NICBM slid 10 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Aayan Real Estate topped the volume with over 16 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s gains, the winnerws continued to outnumber the losers. 65 stocks advanced whereas 19 closed lower. Of the 129 counters active on Thursday, 19 closed flat. 7,308 deals worth KD 34.7 milllion were transacted — down 17 pct from Wednesday.
National Industries Group was flat at 165 fils whereas Boubyan Petrochemical Co jumped 20 fils. Mezzan Holding took in 1 fil before settling at 760 fils while Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co was up 8 fils at 365 fils.
Jazeera Airways fell 4 fils to 746
fils and ALAFCO dialed up 2 fils before settling at 349 fils. Equipment Holding Co inched 0.3 fil higher and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co climbed 9 fils to 342 fils. OSOS rose 3 fils to 85 fils and Mashaer Holding added 2.5 fils.
Kuwait Portland Cement Co soared 40 fils to KD 1.080 and Kuwait Cement Co stood pat at 400 fils. Kuwait Gulf Links Transport Co paused at 114 fils and KGL Logistics trimmed 0.1 fil. Educational Holding Co gained 20 fils.
Kuwait Foundry Co paused at 199 fils and ACICO Industries too did not budge from its earlier close of 225 fils. Combined Group Contracting Co gained 10 fils and Inovest gave up 0.5 fil.
In the banking sector, Burgan Bank and Boubyan Bank rose 3 fils each toc close at 270 fils and 513 fils respectively whereas Kuwait International Bank fell 2 fils to 237 fils.
Al Ahli Bank stood pat at 339 fils and Al Mutahed was down 4 fils at 286 fils. Commercial Bank was not traded during the session.
National Investment Co took in 0.1 fil and Kuwait Investment Co inched 1 fil higher. International Financial Advisors added 0.5 fil and Coast Investment Co tripped 0.4 fil before closing at 33.5 fils.
KMEFIC slipped 0.9 fil to 23.1 fils while Al Mal Investment and Arzan paused at 19.4 fils and 29.5 fils respectively. International
Financial Advisors dialed up 0.5 fil whereas Al Deera Holding inched 0.4 fil into green.
Bayan Investment and Unicap were unchanged at 43.9 fils and 54.5 fils respectively whereas Ektittab Holding added 0.5 fil. Al Imtiaz fell 3 fils to 137 fils and Noor Financial Investment Co gave up 0.6 fil.
Sokouk Holding rose 1.3 fils to 41.5 fils and Securities House eased 0.3 fil. Ahleia Insurance shed 11 fils and Wethaq Takaful took in 1.1 fils g before settling at 27.2 fils.
Kuwait Real Estate dialed up 1 fil whereas National Real Estate Co and Salhiya Real Estate Co stood pat at 119 fils and 330 fils respectively. Mabanee Co stalled at 633 fils and Tamdeen Real Estate inched 1 fil up. United Real Estate eased 0.3 fil to clipped 0.3 fil.
Human Soft Holding has posted a 9.7 percent rise in profits to KD 7.83 million during the first quarter of 2018. The increase in quarterly profits is attributed to higher revenues from company’s expanding business.
Inovest’s first quarter profit has dipped 64.6 percent to $2.9 million compared to $8.2 million in the same month a year ago. Earnings per share stood at $1.06.
The market was on a gaining spree during the week. The main index closed higher in all five sessions and rallied 197 pts week-onweek. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.