Kuwait’s index winds up week with modest gains
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 10: Kuwait stocks pulled higher on Thursday to wrap up the week on a cheery note. The All Shares Index, after getting off to a tame start, climbed 28.67 points to 5,324.42 points led by some of the mid-caps even as the blue chips remained largely muted.
The Premier Market paced 22.78 points while Main Market rallied 40.98 points to 435.78 pts. The BK 50 Main index sprinted 66.51 pts to 4354.72 points. The volume turnover meanwhile swelled past the 356 million mark to hit a one-week high. Over 356 million shares changed hands – a 23 pct surge from the day before.
The sectors closed mostly in red. Oil and Gas outshone the rest with 2.36 pct gain whereas Basic Materials shed 0.38 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 138.5 million shares while in Banking sector continued to dominate with KD 16.3 million.
In the individual shares, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait took in 2 fils on back of 5.4 million shares to close at 859 points while Boubyan Bank dialed down 2 fils. Commercial Bank jumped 20 fils to 500 fils and NAPESCO soared 60 fils to KD 1.060.
Zain rose 2 fils to 574 fils on back of 2.47 million shares while Ooredoo gave up 2 fils before settling at 590 fils. STC rose 3 fils to 864 fils and Agility climbed 4 fils to 627 fils. Humansoft Holding spiked 175 fils to KD 2.789 and KIPCO stood pat at 151 fils after pushing 1.5 million shares.
The market opened on a flat note and moved sideways in early trade. The main index headed north past the mid-session amid spurt in buying in some of the counters and wound up with modest gains.
Top gainer of the day, Investors Holding soared 33.23 pct to 30 fils and Al Eid sprinted 31 percent to stand next. QIC skidded 14 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and AAN topped the volume with 60.9 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s gains, the winners outnumbered the losers. 72 stocks advanced whereas 34 closed lower. Of the 128 counters active on Thursday, 22 closed flat. 10.456 deals worth KD 36.6 million were transacted during the session.
National Industries Group eased 1 fils to 168 fils Mezzan Holding scaled 11 fils before ending at 624 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co gave up 5 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co held ground at 274 fils. Integrated Holding clipped 2 fils and Aznoula added 2 fils before ending at 325 fils.
Jazeera Airways rose 4 fils to 580 fils and ALAFCO inched 1 fil higher. Mashaer dialed up 1.7 fils whereas OSOS stood pat at 94 fils. Soor Fuel too was unchanged at 110 fils and Oula Fuel closed 2 fils in green. Burgan Well Drilling Co closed 4.3 fils in red
Kuwait Cement Co was flat at 174 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement dropped 8 fils to 780 fils. Gulf Cement Co dialed up 1 fil and Fujairah Cement did not move from its earlier close of 35 fils. Bareeq slipped 9.9 fils to 92.1 fils and Thuraaya was down 6 fils at 123 fils.
Kuwait National Cinema Co and ACICO Industries paused at 660 fils and 99 fils respectively whereas NICBM took in 1 fil. KCPC rose 4 fils to 319 fils and KPPC was unchanged at 41.9 fils. IFA Hotels and Resorts edged 0.8 fil up and Combined Group Contracting Co stood pat at 156 fils.
Kuwait Foundry Co inched 1 fil higher to 245 fils and Gulf Cable sprinted 12 fils to 730 fils. Automated Systems Co dialed up 1.1 fils and Gulf Petroleum Investment inched 0.4 fil up on back of 24.4 million shares. Equipment Holding eased 0.2 fil to 17.3 fils.
In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House and Gulf Bank took 1 fil each with brisk trading to close at 625 fils and 213 fils respectively whereas Kuwait International Bank was unchanged at 177 fils. Boubyan Bank gave up 2 fils and Warba Bank added 3 fils. Ahli United Bank rose 2 fils on back of over 4 million shares.
The market was mixed during the week. The main index closed higher in two of the five sessions and is unchanged week-on-week. It had gained 30 points from start of the month and is down 1,073 points year-to-date.