Kuwait index heads north, volume soars
NBK rallies 14 fils
KUWAIT CITY, June 24: Kuwait stocks galloped north on Wednesday extending the gains to fourth consecutive session. The All Shares Index, after a tepid start, climbed 58.58 pts to 5,179.74 points led by some of the heavyweights.
The Premier Market soared 81.17 points to 5,669.35 pts while Main Market rose 13.35 points to 4,212.60 points. The BK 50 Main index was up 13 points at 4193.25 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile surged for the third day to hit a two-week high. Over 267 million shares changed hands – a 45 pct jump from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in green. Oil and Gas outshone the rest with 2.21 pct gain whereas Insurance shed 0.29 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Banking sector dominated in both volume and value with over 92 million shares worth KD 32.9 million.
Among the notable gainers, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 14 fils to 830 fils on back of over 10 million shares and Kuwait Finance House extended last session’s gains with a 8 fils jump to 6,161 fils after pushing 17.3 million shares. Mabanee Co soared 20 fils to 682 fils taking the month’s gains to 72 fils.
Zain was unchanged at 500 fils after moving 5.4 million shares while Ooredoo dialed up 2 fils before settling at 665 fils. stc stood pat at 850 fils while logistics major Agility sprinted 32 fils to 737 fils. Humansoft Holding paused at KD 2.649 and KIPCO clipped 2 fils. KAMCO eased 1.3 fils to 72.5 fils.
The market opened on a tame note and moved sideways in early trade. The main index sagged slightly almost an hour into the session to hit the day’s lowest level of 5,140 pts and headed north. It scaled the day’s highest mark of 5,183 points amid buying spurt in some of the counters and eroded slightly in the final hour before closing with hefty gains.
Top gainer of the day Abyaar spiked 51.02 pct to 7.9 fils while Energy Holding soared 34 pct to stand next. Metal and Recycling Co skidded 12.8 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Abyaar also topped the volume with 69 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s gains, the winners outnumbered the losers. 58 stocks advanced whereas 49 closed lower. Of the 120 counters active on Wednesday, 13 closed flat. 10,056 deals worth KD 51.7 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group took in 1 fil on back of over 4 million shares nwhile Mezzan Holding was down 8 fils at 592 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co ticked 1 fil up to 592 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co paused at 278 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co dialed up 2 fils.
Jazeera Airways climbed 12 fils to 689 fils and ALAFCO scaled 6 fils to end at 174 fils. Kuwait National Cinema Co tripped 1 fil and Educational Holding Co inched 1 fil higher. OSOS slipped 8.3 fils to 91.6 fils and Inovest added 2.2 fils. FutureKid was down 4 fils at 76.4 fils.
Kuwait Cement Co slipped 7 fils to 194 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement gave up 5 fils. Gulf Cable dropped 6 fils to 549 fils and NICBM closed 4 fils in green. Combined Group Contracting Co clipped 2 fils and KCPC was up 3 fils at 310 fils. Hilal Cement took in 2 fils and Educational Holding Group inched 1 fil up.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank and Burgan Bank dialed down 1 fil each whereas Boubyan Bank rallied 29 fils to 536 fils on back of over 5 million shares. Kuwait International Bank gave up 2 fils with brisk trading.
The market has been buoyant so far during the week gaining 159 points in last four sessions. It has soared 183 points from start of the month and is down 1,102 points year-to-date.