Kuwait bourse ends week on soggy note
Zain drops 14 fils, Agility gains
KUWAIT CITY, March 26: Kuwait stocks headed south on Thursday to wind up the week on a soggy note. The All Shares Index dropped 45.1 pts in a volatile session to 4897.48 points as profit taking weighed on most of the heavyweights following the four-day gains.
The Premier Market slid 61.1 pts to 5,281.2 pts while Main Market was down 13.2 pts at 4,142.3 points. BK 50 Main gave up 8.6 points. The volume turnover meanwhile fell sharply to hit a two-week low. Over 140 million shares changed hands – down 43 pct from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in red. Consumer Services outshone the rest with 1.5 pct gain whereas Telecommunications shed 1.96 percent, the worst performer of the day. Banking sector continued to dominate in both volume and value with 57 million shares worth KD 21.52 million.
Among the notable losers, Kuwait Finance House slipped 5 fils to 653 fils with heavy trading and National Bank of Kuwait followed suit to end at 748 fils with a volume of 5.2 million. Humansoft Holding skidded 72 fils to KD 2.400 partly erasing Wednesday’s strong gains.
Zain extended last session’s small losses with 14 fils drop to 498 fils with a volume of over 7 million while Ooredoo climbed 6 fils to 696 fils. Agility climbed 9 fils to 552 fils trimming the month’s losses to 143 points.
The market opened weak and fell sharply in early trade. The main index plumbed the day’s lowest level of 4,863 pts and pulled higher. It clawed back most of the losses half way into the session before sagging again in the final hour to close with moderate losses.
Top gainer of the day, Metal and Recycling Co jumped 9.9 pct to 41.9 fils while Al Eid and Jazeera Airways climbed 8.7 pct each to stand next. NCCI skidded 18 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Kuwait Finance House topped the volume with 14.3 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s drop the market spread was skewed towards the losers. 31 stocks advanced whereas 66 closed lower. Of the 113 counters active on Thursday, 16 closed flat. 9,295 deals worth KD 31.2 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group fell 5 fils to 162 fils after pushing 4.9 million shares while Mezzan Holding added 3 fils to close at 478 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co dropped 15 fils to 469 fils while Al Qurain Petrochemical Co clipped 2 fils. Integrated Holding was down 8 fils at 419 fils.
Jazeera Airways jumped 41 fils to 511 fils trimming the month’s losses to 494 fils while ALAFCO slightly erased last session’s robust gains with a 3 fils slip to 511 fils. FutureKid and Inovest paused at 95 fils and 59.8 fils respectively and Soor Fuel agve up 4 fils.
Kuwait Cement Co dropped 7 fils to 170 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement climbed 11 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co took in1 fil and ACICO Industries dialed down 2 fils. Warbacap trimmed 1.5 fils and Sultan Centre erased 3.2 fils before ending at 46.8 fils.
Kuwait Foundry Co dropped 9 fils to 300 fils while Educational Holding rose 4 fils to 274 fils. KCPC fell 3 fils to 269 fils while Combined Group Contracting Co and OSOS clipped 1 fils each. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co tripped 0.3 fils and KGL Logistics followed suit. Mubarrad eased 1 fils to 55 fils.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank slipped 5 fils to 210 fils after trading 5.2 million shares and Kuwait International Bank gave up 8 fils with a volume of 9.2 million. Burgan Bank clipped 1 fil and Boubyan Bank was down 4 fils at 511 fils.
Ahli United Bank fell 5 fils to 217 fils after pushing 10.7 million shares and Warba Bank clipped 1 fil. Commercial Bank rose 5 fils to 505 fils whereas Al Ahli Bank and Al Mutahed gave up 3 fils each to close at 190 fils and 266 fils respectively.
KIPCO fell 2 fils to 178 fils and Kuwait Investment Co followed suit. FACIL dropped 8 fils ro 198 fils while National Investment Co and Coast Investment took in 0.1 fils each.
International Financial Advisors gave up 3.1 fils and Securities House trimmed 0.7 fil before settling at 36.4 fils.
Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) ticked 0.1 fil higher to 93.3 fils and KMEFIC dialed up 1.1 fils with thin trading. NIH slipped 3.4 fils to 66.5 fils while Unicap and Bayan Investment stood pat at 39.9 fils and 34.5 fils respectively.
Noor Investment was unchanged at 104 fils while Al Salam and Ektittab Holding took in 0.3 fil each. Sokouk Holding trimmed 0.9 fil while Al Imtiaz rallied 5.1 fils on back of over 4 million shares.
Mabanee Co stood pat at 613 fils after trading over 1 million shares and Salhiya Real Estate too did not budge from its earlier close of 395 fils. Mazaya Holding clipped 1.9 fils and Tamdeen Real Estate gave up 4 fils.
The market was largely upbeat during the week. The main index closed higher in three of the four sessions soaring 289 pts weekon-week. It has dipped 1,347 pts from start of the month and is trading 1,340 pts lower year-todate.