Blue chips push Kuwait index higher
Mabanee Co gains 16 fils, KFIC skids
KUWAIT CITY, May 19: Kuwait stocks headed north on Tuesday extending its gains to third straight session. The All Shares Index rallied 68.98 points in a broad advance to 4894.36 points paced by heavyweights even as the overall mood remained upbeat.
The Premier Market soared 91 pts to 5287.34 points trimming the month’s losses to 69 pts while Main Market rose 24.81 points to 4120.73 pts. The BK 50 Main Index climbed 27.25 points. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for the third consecutive session to hit the month’s high. Over 177 million changed hands – a 70 pct surge from Monday.
All sectors, barring one, closed in green territory. Consumer Services outshone the rest with 2 pct gain whereas Oil and Gas, the only loser, eased 0.04 pct. Banking sector continued to top in both volume and value with 117.6 million shares traded for KD 32.25 million.
Among the prime movers, National Bank of Kuwait rallied 12 fils on back of 6.8 million shares to 747 fils and Kuwait Finance House followed suit after pushing over 16 million shares at the counter. Mabanee Co sprinted 16 fils to 584 fils paring the month’s losses to 52 fils and Kuwait National Cinema Co soared 65 fils.
Zain took in 2 fils on back of over 3 million shares to close at 524 fils while Ooredoo gained 12 fils. STC fell 5 fils to 830 fils and logistics major Agility added 5 fils before winding up at 638 fils with a volume of over 2 million shares. Humansoft Holding climbed 70 fils to KD 2.680.
The market opened firm and moved sideways in early trade. The main index gained traction and headed higher amid strong buying in most of the heavyweights and peaked at 4905 pts half way into the session. It sagged slightly thereafter and closed with robust gains.
Top gainer of the day, Kuwait National Cinema Co rallied 9.9 pct to 720 fils and Thuraya sprinted 9.8 percent to stand close behind. KFIC skidded 8.5 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with a whopping 63 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s gains, the market spread was skewed towards the winners. 33 stocks advanced whereas 65 closed lower. Of the 108 counters active on Tuesday, 10 closed flat. 7547 deals worth KD 39.9 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group rallied 9 fils on back of over 4 million shares to 171 fils while Mezzan Holding climbed 6 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co jumped 18 fils to 510 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co gave up 2 fils. Metal and Recycling Co and ACICO Industries fell 3 fils each while Kuwait Foundry Co jumped 20 fils to 250 fils.
Jazeera Airways rose 3 fils to 531 fils and ALAFCO dialed up 2 fils. Kuwait Cement Co added 3 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement rallied 24 fils to 740 fils. Kuwait Foundry Co gained 20 fils and Educational Holding Group sprinted 18 fils to 288 fils. Combined Group Contracting Co added 3 fils.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank scaled 5 fils on back of 4.3 million shares while Burgan Bank was up 4 fils at 194 fils after moving over 5 million shares. Boubyan Bank gained 9 fils and Kuwait International Bank took in 1 fils with brisk trading
The market has been upbeat so far during the week gaining 194 points in last three sessions. It is down 81 points from start of the month and has retreated 1406 points year-to-date.