Kuwait bourse kicks off week with modest gains

National Bank of Kuwait rallies 7 fils, Humansoft Holding dips ‘There’s a real opportunity for US companies to lead the way’

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 13: Kuwait stocks pushed higher on Sunday after charting a mixed course in the previous week. The All Shares Index, after a wobbly start, climbed 20.7 pts to 5,345.12 points driven by some of the mid-caps even as the blue chips swayed in both directions.

The Premier Market rose 18.85 points to 5,854.57 pts while Main Market scaled 24.75 pts. The BK 50 Main jumped 30.8 points to 4,385.53 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile soared to a fresh multi-month high. Over 479 million shares changed hands – a 34 pct surge from Thursday.

The sectors closed mixed. Technology outshone the rest with 6.43 pct gain whereas Consumer Goods shed 0.40 percent, the biggest loser of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 221 million shares while Banking sector was ahead in value with KD 18.2 million shares.

Among the prime movers, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 7 fils to 866 fils on back of 4.5 million shares while Warba Bank sprinted 13 fils to 227 fils. National Investment Co extended last session’s gains with 5 fils increase and KAMCO added 2.5 fils after pushing over 3 million shares. Noor Financial Investment Co rose 168 fils.

Zain climbed 4 fils to 578 fils with a volume of 1.8 million and Ooredoo jumped 16 fils to 606 fils. stc was down 9 fils at 855 fils and Agility clipped 2 fils after pushing 1.7 million shares. Humansoft Holding dropped 27 fils to KD 2.771 and KIPCO eased 1 fil. KMEFIC scaled 7 fils to end at 121 fils.

The market opened firm and slipped briefly in early trade. The main index plumbed the day’s lowest level of 5,322 pts and headed north amid buying spurt in some of the counters. It moved sideways for over an hour before covering more grounds in second half and closed with modest gains.

Top gainer of the day, Aayan Investment soared 21.59 pct to 99.7 fils and Al Salam climbed 10.6 pct to stand next. Investors Holding skidded 27.6 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and AAN topped the volume with 48.7 million shares.

Mirroring the day’s gains, the winners outnumbered the losers. 58 stocks advanced whereas 45 closed lower. Of the 126 counters active on Sunday, 23 closed flat. 13,129 deals worth KD 42,47 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group was unchanged at 168 fils after moving 3.2 million shares whereas Mezzan Holding gave up 3 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co took in 2 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co fell 3 fils to 271 fils with a volume of over 1 million. Integrated Holding Co erased 3 fils and Aznoula paused at 325 fils.

Jazeera Airways fell 3 fils to 577 fils while ALAFCO stood pat at 158 fils. Kuwait National Cinema Co gained 10 fils and Automated Systems Co was up 4.5 fils at 74.5 fils.

Oula Fuel and Soor tripped 1 fil each while Mubarrad scaled 4.4 fils on back of 4.9 million shares. OSOS took in 0.9 fil with thin trading.

Kuwait Cement Co climbed 7 fils to 181 fils on back of 1.2 million shares and Kuwait Portland Cement skidded 19 fils to 761 fils. Gulf Cement Co gave up 3 fils and Fujairah Cement trimmed 1.6 fils. ACICO Industries sprinted 7 fils to 99.5 fils and NICBM was unchanged at 155 fils. Hilal Cement added 5.6 fils.

Kuwait Foundry Co was flat at 245 fils and Gulf Cable gained 5 fils. Metal and Recycling Co dialed down 2.1 fils and Equipment Holding edged 0.5 fil into green. Inovest added 2 fils and Combined Group Contracting Co inched 1 fil higher. KCPC dialed down 2 fils and PAPCO eased 1 fil to 60 fils.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank was unchanged at 213 fils after pushing 6.9 million shares and Burgan Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of 200 fils.

Kuwait International Bank eased 1 fil to 176 fils and Kuwait Finance House took in 1 fil. Ahli United Bank held ground at 221 fils and Commercial Bank followed suit.

The market was mixed during the previous week. The main index closed higher in two of the five sessions and is unchanged week-on-week.

It had gained 50 points from start of the month and is down 1,053 points year-to-date.