Kuwait winds up week in red, volume recedes
NBK clips 2 fils, Ooredoo gains
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 18: Kuwait stocks edged lower on Thursday to wind up the week in red territory. The All Shares Index fell 4.02 pts in volatile session to 5,004 points led by some of the blue chips even as the overall mood remained mixed.
The Premier Market slipped 7.56 pts to 5,172.99 points taking the month’s losses to 181 pts while Main Market added 2.49 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile turned more anemic to hit the month’s lowest level. Over 49 million shares changed hands – a 14 pct drop from the day before.
The sectors closed mixed. Telecommunications outshone the rest with 0.34 pct whereas oil and gas sank 1.73 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Volume wise, banks notched the highest market share of 39 pct and real estate trailed with 23 percent contribution.
In the individual shares, National Bank of Kuwait clipped 2 fils and Gulf Bank gave up 3 fils to settle at 247 fils after trading over 4 million shares. Mabanee Co partly recouped Wednesday’s losses with 3 fils gain and Humansoft Holding scaled 30 fils.
Zain ticked 1 fil higher to 440 fils on back of 2.3 million shares and Ooredoo climbed 10 fils to 760 fils. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) stood pat at 720 fils and Agility trimmed 1 fil to wind up at 811 fils.
The market opened firm and held steady in early trade. The main index headed south thereafter dragged by some of the heavyweights and plumbed the day’s lowest level of 4,997 points almost half way into the session. It moved sideways thereafter and trimmed most of the losses at close.
Top gainer of the day, Marakez rallied 10.9 pct to 23.5 fils and Remal climbed 9.5 percent to stand next. Sanam Real Estate tumbled 18 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with 5.5 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s downtick, the losers slightly outnumbered the winners. 41 stocks advanced whereas 49 closed lower. Of the 108 counters active on Thursday, 18 closed flat. 2,560 deals worth KD 10.29 million were transacted – a 30.9 percent drop in value from the day before.
National Industries Group was unchanged at 156 fils and is down 6 fils from start of the month while Mezzan Holding gave up 5 fils before settling at 630 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co paused at KD 1.055 and Al Qurain Petrochemical too did not budge from its earlier close of 385 fils.
Jazeera Airways fell 2 fils to 735 fils and NAPESCO stood pat at 825 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co tripped 1 fil and Equipment Holding Co inched 0.1 fil into green. NICBM ticked 1 fil up to 175 fils.
Kuwait Portland Cement climbed 7 fils to KD 1.052 and Kuwait National Cinema Co was down 6 fils to 993 fils. KCPC slipped 7 fils to 223 fils and KPPC fell 2.5 fils to 52.4 fils. Mashaer Holding tripped 2 fils before winding up at 42.3 fils.
Burgan Well Drilling Co dropped 11 fils to 100 fils and Combined Group Contracting Co was down 8
fils at 351 fils. Gulf Cable slipped 11 fils to 364 fils and KGL Logistics trimmed 0.7 fil.
In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House clipped 2 fils after trading over 1 million shares while Kuwait International Bank and Burgan Bank tripped 1 fil each to close at 230 fils and 275 fils respectively.
Climbed
Warba Bank eased 1 fil to 630 fils and Boubyan Bank followed suit. The bank’s net profits climbed 18 pct to KD 40.3 million during the nine-month period ended on Sept 30, 2018 as against same period last year. Earnings per share soared to 15.83 fils.
Al Ahli Bank ticked 1 fil lower to 285 fils and Al Mutahed was up 3 fils at 292 fils. Ahli United Bank took in 1 fil and Commercial Bank of Kuwait was not traded during the session.
KIPCO dialed up 1 fil to close at 206 fils while National Investment Co and Securities House held ground at 76.5 fils and 48.9 fils respectively. International Financial Advisors added 0.4 fil and Coast Investment Co was flat at 30 fils.
KAMCO took in 0.5 fil whereas KMEFIC and GIH trimmed 0.1 fil each to end at 20.4 fils and 14.9 fils
respectively.
Ektittab Holding fell 2.4 fils to 21.6 fils while Al Mal Investment and Al Deera Holding clipped 0.7 fil each.
Bayan Investment Co and Noor Financial Investment dialed up 0.3 fil each to close at 47.8 fils and 51.8 fils respectively whereas KFIC tripped 0.3 fil. Unicap added 0.5 fil and Noor Financial Investment closed 0.3 fil
higher at 51.8 fils. Al Imtiaz stalled at 126 fils.
National Real Estate rose 1.5 fils to 91.5 fils whereas Salhiya Real Estate and Kuwait Real Estate held ground at 329 fils and 45.3 fils respectively. Al Aqaria fell 2.8 fils to 27 fils and Mazaya Holding edged 0.5 fil into red.
Independent Petroleum Group’s third quarter profits rose 1.3 pct to KD 1.46 million from same period last year. During the nine-month period ending Sept 30 the earnings grew 15.4% to KD 5.86 million.
The bourse trended lower during the week. The main index closed lower in three of the five sessions shedding 62 pts week-on-week and has tumbled 124 points from start of the month. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.