Kuwait bourse ekes feeble gains after volatile session
KUWAIT CITY, May 23: Kuwait stocks crept higher on Sunday recouping last session’s slight losses. The All Shares Index rose 5.71 points in volatile session to 6296.04 pts even as the broader sentiment remained lackluster.
The Premier Market climbed 10.66 pts to 6835.47 points taking the month’s gains to 212 pts while Main Market gave up 5.73 points. The BK 50 Main was down 3.41 points at 5466.54 points. The volume turnover meanwhile dropped following last session’s upswing. Over 473 million shares changed hands – down 11 percent from Thursday.
The sectors closed mostly in green turf. Energy outperformed the rest with 1.93 pct gain whereas Real Estate shed 0.77 percent, the biggest loser of the session. Volume wise, Financial Services continued to top with 170.6 million shares and Banking sector was ahead in value with over KD 17 million.
In the individual shares, Kuwait Finance House dialed up 2 fils on back of 6.7 million shares while sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait clipped 2 fils after pushing 3.8 million shares and settled at 837 fils. Mezzan Holding scaled 5 fils to close at 670 fils and Humansoft Holding shed 12 fils partly erasing last session’s gains. Kuwait National Cinema Co KNCC) tumbled 47 fils to 850 fils.
Zain inched 1 fil higher to 599 fils with a volume of 1.8 million and Ooredoo tripped 1 fil. stc fell 2 fils to 865 fils while logistics major Agility sprinted 14 fils to KD 1.048 on back of 2.8 million shares. KIPCO added 1 fils before ending at 152 fils whereas National Investment Co and Mabanee Co stood pat at 183 fils and 747 fils respectively.
National Industries Group rose 2 fils to 237 fils after moving 2.7 million shares and Gulf Cable followed suit to close at 861 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slipped 4 fils to 920 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co inched 1 fil in red. Independent Petroleum Group paused at 555 fils and Sultan Centre paced 11 fils
The market opened firm and pulled higher in early trade. The main index flipped and see sawed in broad range before scaling the day’s highest level of 6848 points almost an hour into the session. It headed south again to bottom at 6827 points and clawed back in the final minutes to close with marginal gains.
Top gainer of the day, Energy Holding soared 16.7 pct to 44 fils while Equipment Holding scaled 8.11 percent to stand next. Bareeq Holding skidded 36.5 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and AAN topped the volume with 82.6 million shares.
Despite the day’s gains, the market spread was slightly skewed towards the losers. 55 stocks advanced whereas 66 closed lower. Of the 143 counters active on Sunday, 22 closed flat. 14,927 deals worth KD 54.5 million were transacted during the session.
Jazeera Airways climbed 13 fils to 678 fils taking the month’s gains to 65 fils and ALAFCO added 2 fils to close at 227 fils. Aznour was unchanged at 252 fils and Integrated Holding closed 5 fils in green. Kuwait Cement Co rose 4 fils to 257 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement followed suit to end at 900 fils. HEISC sprinted 10 fils.
In the banking sector, Gulf Bank rose 1 fil to 22 1 fils with brisk trading while Kuwait International Bank held ground at 213 fils Burgan Bank eased 1 fil to 228 fils with a volume of 1.7 million and Boubyan Bank clipped 2 fils.
Warba Bank was unchanged at 253 fils and Ahli United Bank dialed up 1 fil on back of 16.7 million shares. Commercial Bank stalled at 500 fils and Al Ahli Bank gave up 2 fils. Ahli United Bank Kuwait took in 1 fil.
Kuwait Investment Co was flat at 188 fils and International Financial Advisors too did not budge from its earlier close of 117 fils after pushing 1.8 million shares. Coast Investment added 1.7 fils and Securities House edged 1.1 fils higher to 71.3 fils. Arzan Financial Group dialed down 2 fils with a volume of 4.7 million shares and First Investment tripped 1.3 fils.
Noor Financial Investment rose 1 fil to 225 fils and Tamdeen Investment gained 5 fils. Kuwait Financial Investment Centre (Markaz) inched 1fil higher to 132 fils whereas KMEFIC erased 3 fils. Bayan Investment Co added 1.7 fils and Aayan Leasing clipped 1 fils with brisk trading. Gulf Investment House gave up 2 fils and Osoul Investment closed 1.1 fils in red. KAMCO clipped 1 fil and KFIC was down 3 fils at 118 fils
The market was mixed during the previous week. The main index closed lower in three of the four sessions and added 11 points weekon-week. It has rallied 182 points from start of the month and is up 749 points year-to-date.