Kuwait clocks ‘modest’ gains, volume recedes
NBK gains 23 fils, Jazeera Airways dips
KUWAIT CITY, March 23: Kuwait stocks eked modest gains on Monday as it kicked off the holiday curtailed week on a positive note. The All Shares Index climbed 23.03 pts to 4,631.10 points paced by some of the blue chips even as the investors toed caution.
The Premier Market jumped 45.35 points to 4,947 pts trimming the month’s losses to 1,783 pts while Main Market shed 21.7 pts. The BK 50 Main index was down 39.43 points at 3,934.8 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile fell sharply after hitting month’s highest on Thursday. Over 166 million shares changed hands – down 49 pct from the previous session.
The sectors closed mostly in red. Telecommunications outshone the rest with 2.78 pct gain whereas Basic Materials shed 1.44 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, Banking sector continued to top both in volume and value with 111.09 million shares worth KD 41.2 million.
Among the standout performers, National Bank of Kuwait rallied 23 fils to 774 fils on back of 14.9 million shares while Kuwait Finance House sprinted 20 fils to 591 fils with a volume of 25.8 million and has shed 203 fils so far during the month. Humansoft Holding however skidded 132 fils to KD 2.510.
Zain rallied 15 fils to 487 fils on back of 7.5 million shares extending last session’s gains while Ooredoo
climbed 11 fils to 622 fils. STC sprinted 10 fils to 730 fils an logistics major Agility was up 11 fils at 481 fils after pushing 3.8 million shares.
The market opened firm and headed north in early trade. The main index peaked at 4,669 points amid strong buying in some of the heavyweights and drifted sideways well past the mid-session. It gave up some of the gains in the second half before closing with modest gains.
Top gainer of the day, Livestock Trading and Livestock Co soared 12.18 pct to 175 fils and Warba Insurance Co scaled 9.8 percent to stand next. Kuwait Insurance Co skidded 9.17 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with over 44 million shares.
Despite the day’s gains, the market spread was skewed towards the losers. 34 shares advanced whereas 64 closed lower. Of the 105 counters active on Monday, 7 closed flat. 105 deals worth KD 51 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group fell 3 fils to 140 fils after trading 3.4 million shares while Mezzan Holding was down 5 fils at 450 fils. Al Qurain Petrochemical Co tripped 1 fil and Boubyan Petrochemical Co dipped 14 fils to 415 fils erasing most of last session’s gains. Integrated Holding dropped 10 fils to 426 fils.
Jazeera Airways dipped 21 fils to 394 fils with a volume of over 1 million and ALAFCO gave up 8 fils before settling at 142 fils. Educational Holding added 4 fils while OSOS and Combined Group Contracting Co slipped 5 fils each to end at 102 fils and 157 fils respectively.
Kuwait Cement Co climbed 9 fils to 165 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement shed 19 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co fell 3 fils to 310 fils and Gulf Cable followed suit to close at 435 fils.
Kuwait Foundry Co gained 11 fils and Kuwait National Cinema Co skidded 38 fils to 739 fils. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co dialed up 1.5 fils and ACICO Industries stood pat at 104 fils.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank was down 4 fils at 195 fils with a volume of 12.7 million shares and Kuwait International Bank followed suit to close at 190 fils. Burgan Bank fell 3 fils to 195 fils and Boubyan Bank sprinted 9 fils to 440 fils on back of 2.2 million shares.
Ahli United Bank skidded 18 fils to 200 fils with heavy trading and Warba Bank added 3 fils. Al Ahli Bank dropped 10 fils to 190 fils and Al Mutahed gave up 3 fils after trading over 21 million shares.
KIPCO eased 1 fil to 178 fils while National Investment Co fell 3 fils to 91 fils. Coast Investment Co trimmed 0.2 fil while International Financial Advisors and Arzan clipped 1 fil each.
KAMCO slipped 5.8 fils to 81.7 fils and Osoul was down 4 fils at 77.7 fils. Unicap dialed up 2 fils and Noor Investment erased 1.7 fils. Kuwait Financial Centre gave up 1.1 fils and KMEFIC took in 0.9 fil. National Real Estate fell 2.6 fils to 64.2 fils and Mabanee Co added 3 fils.
The market has been largely bearish during previous week. The main index closed lower in three of the five sessions sliding 296 pts week-on-week. It has skidded 1,443 pts from start of the month and is trading 1,653 pts lower year-to-date.