Kuwait extends gains, blue-chips shine
Mabanee sprints 22 fils, Ooredoo retreats
KUWAIT CITY, April 27: Kuwait stocks scaled more ground on Monday following last session’s modest gains. The All Shares Index climbed 66.86 points in broad advance to 4790.07 pts led by blue chips even as the overall turned cautiously positive.
The Premier Market rallied 80.28 points to 5154 pts trimming the month’s losses to 44 pts while Main Market sprinted 40.13 pts to 4,073.35 points. The BK 50 Main index gained 24/47 points. The volume turnover meanwhile bounced after falling sharply in the last session. Over 132 million shares changed hands – a 44 pct jump from the day before.
All sectors, barring one, closed in green turf. Financial Services outpaced the rest with 3.4 percent gain whereas Consumer Goods, the only loser, eased 0.08 pct. The Banking sector continued to top in both volume and value with 83 million shares traded for KD 28.9 million.
Among the prime movers, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 8 fils to 718 fils on back of 12.48 million shares while Kuwait Finance House scaled 6 fils to close at 588 fils with brisk trading and has shed 44 fils so far during the month. Mabanee Co extended last session’s gains with a 22 fils jump to 600 fils.
Zain climbed 9 fils to 494 fils on back of 2.4 million shares while Ooredoo gave up 9 fils to end at 603 fils, STC rose 6 fils to 807 fils and Agility was up 9 fils at 565 fils after moving 2.9 million shares. Humansoft Holding jumped 55 fils to KD 2.670.
The market opened slightly lower and eased briefly in early trade. The main index plumbed the day’s lowest level of 4711 points and headed north amid moderate buying and wound up with impressive gains.
Top gainer of the day, Amar Financing rallied 15 pct to 50.6 fils and EK Holding sprinted 9.9 percent to stand next. Aayan Real Estate dipped 7.8 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with 25 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s advance, the market spread was skewed towards the winners. 71 stock advanced whereas 25 closed lower. Of the 103 counters active on Monday, 7 closed flat. 7412 deals worth KD 36.2 million where transacted during the session.
National Industries Group added 4 fils on back of 2.7 million shares while Mezzan Holding gave up 4 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co scaled 6 fils and Al urain Petrochemical Co was up 4 fils at 222 fils. Jazeera Airways sprinted 10 fils to 580 fils and Kuwiat Foundry Co gained 9 fils.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank rose 4 fils to 207 fils and Kuwait International Bank climbed 7 fils on back of 14.4 million shares. Burgan Bank added 3 fils and Boubyan Bank dialed up 2 fils.
The market has been trending higher so far during the week gaining 103 points after last two sessions. It has shed 32 points from start of the month and is trading 1494 pts lower year-to-date.