Kuwait market retreats as profit booking dents sentiment
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KUWAIT CITY, April 12: Kuwait stocks retreated on Monday, snapping the fourday winning spree. The All Shares Index dropped 23.78 points in a volatile session to 5,958 pts as profit booking weighed on trading floor sentiment.
The Premier Market slid 28.98 points to 6,542.17 pts paring the month’s gains to 218 pts while Main Market shed 12.42 points. The BK Main 50 was down 13.10 points at 4,983.92 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile receded after hitting a multimonth high in the pervious session. Over 390 million shares changed hands – down 4 pct from the Sunday.
The sectors closed mixed. Insurance sector outshone the rest with 0.82 percent gain whereas Technology skidded 3.35 percent, the steepest decliner of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped the volume with 187.3 million shares and Banking sector dominated the value with KD 23.7 million.
Among the notable losers, Kuwait Finance House slid 10 fils to 727 fils after trading over 9 million shares while sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait gave up 4 fils partly erasing last session’s gains and the counter saw 7.8 million shares change hands. Boursa Kuwait Securities skidded 41 fils to KD 1.108.
Zain was unchanged at 606 fils after pushing over 5 million shares while Ooredoo gave up 4 fils to end at 643 fils. stc tumbled 46 fils to 902 fils and logistics major Agility scaled 7 fils to 764 fils taking the month-to-date gains to 38 fils. Humansoft Holding clipped 2 fils and Mezzan Holding added 2 fils to close at 527 fils. Mabanee Co rose 3 fils to 723 fils.
National Industries Group rose 4 fils to 199 fils on back of 14.5 million shares and Gulf Cable was up 3 fils at 848 fils. Integrated Holding fell 5 fils to 414 fils whereas Aznour stood pat at 267 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co gave up 3 fils to settle at 890 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co paused at 402 fils. YIACO Medial shed 24 fils.
The market opened firm and ticked up in early trading. The main index pulled back briefly before heading north again to scale the day’s highest level of 5,985 pts almost an hour into the session. It retreated thereafter amid selling pressure and bottomed at 5,956 poits in the final minutes before closing with moderate losses.
Top gainer of the day, Munshaat soared 10 pct to 79.2 fils while KMEFIC climbed 7.14 pct to stand next. UPAC skidded 10.22 percent, the steepest decliner of the day while ALOLA topped the volume with 32.5 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s losses the losers outnumbered the winners. 51 stocks advanced whereas 63 closed lower. Of the 136 counters active on Sunday, 22 closed flat. 14,530 deals worth KD 63 million were transacted during the session.
Jazeera Airways slipped 9 fils to 692 fils extending Sunday’s drop while ALAFCO dialed down 2 fils. United Projects Co slid 23 fils to 202 fils and Kuwait National Cinema
Co closed 9 fils in red. KCPC erased 8 fils and Automated Systems Co gave up 3 fils. Kuwait Cement Co climbed 7 fils to 237 fils whereas Kuwait Portland Cement held ground at 888 fils.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank was unchanged at 215 fils after moving 7.8 million shares while Burgan Bank ticked 1 fil into red. Kuwait International Bank fell 3 fils to 206 fils whereas Boubyan Bank was up 4 fils at 634 fils.
Ahli United Bank BSC fell 2 fils to 211 fils with brisk trading whereas Warba Bank took in 1 fil on back of 4.6 million shares. Commercial Bank and Ahli United Bank Kuwait stood pat at 500 fils and 314 fils respectively. Al Ahli Bank fell 2 fils to 202 fils.
KIPCO dialed down 2 fils and National Investment Co eased 1 fil after pushing 1.7 million shares. Al Imtiaz Investment was unchanged at 115 fils whereas Kuwait Investment Co scaled 5 fils on back of over 3 million shares. International Financial Advisors took in 1 fil and KMEFIC sprinted 9 fils to 135 fils.
Noor Financial Investment rallied 13 fils to 228 fils extending Sunday’s gains while Tamdeen Investment gave up 8 fils. Bayan Investment clipped 1.2 fils after moving 16.6 million shares and KFIC scaled 4 fils.
KAMCO fell 1.3 fils to 85.7 fils whereas Arzan stood pat at 108 fils and the counter saw 20.8 million shares change hands. Kuwait Financial Centre ( Markaz) eased 0.4 fils to 88.1 fil whereas First Investment added 2.4 fils with brisk trading.
Amwal International inched 1 fil lower to 19.7 fils whereas Kuwait Insurance Co jumped 20 fils. National Real Estate and Salhia Real Estate trimmed 1 fil each while Tamdeen Real Estate dialed up 2 fils.
The market has been mixed so far during the week, adding 33 points in last two sessions. It has rallied 183 points from start of the month and is up 286 points year-to-date.