By John Mathews

Humansoft Holding dives 99 fils, Burgan Bank gains

Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 11: Kuwait stocks feel deeper into red to wind up the week on a sour note. The All Shares Index dropped 26.64 points in choppy session to 5,065.81 pts weighed by Humansoft Holding and some of the heavyweights even as weakness in regional and global market roiled the sentiment.

The Prime Market dipped 31.61 points to 5,257.16 pts while Main Market was down 17.53 pts at 4718.42 points. The volume turnover meanwhile rebounded following last session’s dip. Over 81 million shares changed hands – a 44 pct surge from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in red turf. Insurance outpaced the rest with 0.6 3 pct gain while consumer goods shed 0.87 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, banks garnered the highest market share of 38.5 percent while financial services trailed with 26.5 pct contribution.

Among the prominent decliners, National Bank of Kuwait extended Wednesday’s losses with 7 fils drop to 822 fils after trading 5.3 million shares while Kuwait Finance House clipped 2 fils. Mabanee Co slipped 5 fils 615 fils and Humansoft Holding tumbled 99 fils

Zain fell 4 fils to 464 fils with a volume of 3.3 million shares and Ooredoo ticked 1 fil into red. Kuwait Telecommunication Co (VIVA) fell 5 fils to 718 fils extending Wednesday’s drop while Agility was down 3 fils at 832 fils .

The market opened firm and fell sharply in early trade. The main index plumbed the day’s lowest level of 5055 points an hour into the session and drifted sideways thereafter between small gains and losses before closing with moderate losses.

Top gainer of the day, First Takaful Insurance Co soared 19 pct to 53 fils and UPAC climbed 9.98 percent to stand next. Ream slid 10 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with 7.4 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s losses the market spread was skewed towards the losers.

28 stocks advanced whereas 75 closed lower. Of the 118 counters active on Thursday, 15 closed flat. 4,134 deals worth KD 17.8 million were transacted – 99.3 pct surge in value from the day before.

National Industries Group eased 1 fil to 156 fils after trading 4.2 million shares and Mezzan Holding shed 7 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co took in 1 fil Al Qurain Petrochemical Co gave up 3 fils before settling at 390 fils.

Jazeera Airways fell 3 fils to 745 fils and ALAFCO slipped 5 fils to 320 fils. Al Kout Industries Group climbed 4 fils whereas Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co to wind up at 483 fils

Gulf Cable and Combined Group Contracting Co trimmed 1 fil each to close at 385 fils and 359 fils respectively. Gulf Cable has posted 382.6% leap in second quarter profits to KD 5.26 million and during the first six months the earnings rose 7.7 percent to KD 6.58 million.

Kuwait Portland Cement tripped 1 fil and Kuwait Cement Co stood pat at 370 fils. Equipment Holding Co trimmed 0.6 fil and Salbookh added 2.4 fils to close at 44 fils.

NAPESCO and Automated Systems Co paused at 830 fils and 117 fils respectively whereas UPAC scaled 59

fils. ACICO Industries dialed up 1 fil and NICBM shed 6 fils. IFA Hotels and Resorts eased 0.5 fil to 95 fils.

KGL Logistics fell 0.7 fil to 43.1 fisl and Al Rai Media Group ticked 0.8 fil higher to 50.3 fils. EK Holding tripped 1 fil while Mashaer Holding and Educational Holding Group clipped 2 fils each.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank was unchanged at 253 fils after trading 2.6 million shares. Kuwait International Bank and Boubyan Bank eased 1 fils each to close at 232 fils and 545 fils respectively.

Burgan Bank rose 3 fils to 267 fils on back of 6.8 million shares whereas Warba Bank and Ahli United Bank slipped 3 fils each. Commercial Bank was flat at 510 fils while Al Ahli Bank and Al Mutahed eased 1fil each.

KIPCO fell 2 fils to 210 fils while Gulf Finance House and Coast edged 0.9 fil

into red. Kuwait Investment House closed flat at 119 fisl whereas Al Madar Investment and Al Imtiaz trimmed 1 fil each.

Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz)

and Coast Investment Co erased 0.9 fil each to close at 92 fils and 30.1 fils respectively. Securities House ticked 0.5 fils higher whereas Al Madina and KMEFIC gave up 0.5 fils each

Al Mal Investment and Unicap slipped 0.6 fils each. Unicap ‘s profits spiked 497 pct during the second quarter to KD 2.8 mln while during the first six months the earnings soared 192.3 pct to KD 3.04 million.

Noor Financial Investment Co fell 1.8 fils to 51 fils whereas National Investment Co closed 3.2 fils down at 76 fils. International Financial Advisors clipped 2 fils and Warba Insurance Co was up 6.8 fils at 84.5 fils.

Kuwait Real Estate eased 0.3 fils to 45 fils while National Real Estate and Salhiya Real Estate clipped 1 fils each. United Real Estate stood pat at 62 fils and Mazaya Holding edged 0.4 fil into red.

The market was downbeat during the week. The main index dropped 45 points week-on-week and has slid 62 points from start of the month. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.