Kuwait bourse ends week with downtick
Zain slips 5 fils, Humansoft shines
KUWAIT CITY, June 25 : Kuwait stocks slipped into a shallow trough on Thursday to wind up the week on a tepid note. The All Shares Index frittered away early gains to close 12 points down at 5,167.74 pts as profit taking weighed on some of the counters following recent gains.
The Premier Market dropped 12.64 points to 5,656.71 pts while Main Market slipped 10.77 points to 4,201.83 pts. The BK 50 Main index was down 12.79 points at 4,180.46 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile receded after Wednesday’s surge. Over 216 million shares changed hands – down 19 pct from the day before.
The sectors closed mixed. Basic Materials outshone the rest with 0.90 pct gain whereas Oil and Gas shed 1.79 percent, the worst performer of the day. Banking sector continued to dominate in both volume and value with 39.4 million shares traded for KD 13.9 million.
In the individual shares, National Bank of Kuwait slightly erased last session’s gains with a 3 fils drop to 827 fils after pushing 2.5 million shares while Kuwait Finance House dialed up 2 fils on back of 8.6 million shares. Mabanee Co gave up 5 fils to close at 677 fils paring the month’s gains to 67 fils.
Zain fell 5 fils to 564 fils after trading 2.9 million shares while Ooredoo gave up 4 fils to end at 661 fils. Stc continued to stagnate at 850 fils while Agility climbed 5 fils to 742 fils . Humansoft Holding soared 131 fils to KD 2.780 taking the month’s gains to 98 fils.
The market opened strong and headed north in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s highest level of 5176 points and retreated into red as sentiment turned soggy.
It bottomed at 5159 pts half way into the session and drifted listlessly thereafter before clawing back some of the losses at close.
Top gainer of the day, Ektittab Holding
rallied 10.4 pct to 13.7 fils and Inovest climbed 9.7 pct to stand next. Energy Holding skidded 16.4 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Abyaar topped the volume with 76.9 million shares.
Mirroring the day’s downtick, the losers slightly outnumbered the winners. 50 stocks advanced whereas 54 closed lower. Of the 117 counters active on Thursday, 13 closed flat. 9,016 deals worth KD 28 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group eased 1 fils to 168 fils whereas Mezzan Holding stood pat at 592 fils following Wednesday’s drop. Boubyan Petrochemical Co sprinted 12 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co was unchanged at 270 fils. Burgan Well Drilling Co gave up 3.6 fils and Advanced Technology Co took in 1 fils.
Jazeera Airways eased 1 fils to 688 fils and ALAFCO gave up 3 fils after trading 1.2 million shares, KCPC soared 27 fils to 337 fils and Combined Group Contracting Co dialed up 2 fils. OSOS clipped 1.1 fils and Kuwait National Cinema Co held ground at 750 fils.
Kuwait Cement Co fell 2 fils to 192 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement was flat at 785 fils. Hilal Cement gave up 3 fils while Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co added 4 fils on back of over 1 million shares. Gulf Cable dialed down 2 fils and Shuaiba Industrial gained 8 fils. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co fell 1.3 fils and KGL Logistics inched 1.7 fils into red .
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank fell 3 fils to 217 fils whereas Burgan Bank amd Kuwait International Bank clipped 1 fils each. Boubyan Bank was down 3 fils at 533 fils with a volume of 1.4 million. Ahli United Bank clipped 2 fils and Warba Bank paused at 205 fils.
The market was largely buoyant during the week. The main index closed higher in four of the five sessions gaining 147 points week-on-week. It has rallied 171 points from start of the month and is down 1,114 points year-to-date.