Kuwait equities end losing streak

BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT

KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the green zone. The Price Index closed at 5,010.39 points, up by 1.30 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index increased by 4.43 percent after closing at 344.87 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 809.68 points up by 5.46 percent. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 20.41 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 12.65 million, whereas trading volume average was 166.58 million shares, recording an increase of 15.94 percent.

The stock market was able to compensate a part of its previous weeks’ losses as a result to the relative increase recorded by the oil prices, which positively affected the traders’ morale and pushed them to purchase, especially after the price decline of many stocks to very low tempting purchasing levels during the past period. The market witnessed such performance in light of the purchasing power that included most of the traded stocks during the week, especially the leading and operational stocks, which affected all the market indices headed by KSX-15 to realize big weekly gains.

The stock market initiated its first sessions of the week with a noticeable growth to the three indices, supported by the active purchasing operations witnessed by many stocks of most sectors, especially the leading stocks which affected the KSX-15 index in particular, and enabled it to reach its highest level in one day since a long time, as its gains exceeded in that session 2.3 percent, which positively reflected on the market capitalization to record good increase by the end of the session. Also, the market could not continue its upward direction in the next session, as all its indices dropped due to the profit collection operations that were present during the session, in addition to the return of the speculated operations to take a negative control over the trading activity.

On the mid-week session, the three market indicators closed mixed, as the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to realize some gain despite the profit collection operations that were present during the session, whilst the Price Index decreased slightly affected by the selling operations executed on some small-cap stocks. Moreover, the three stock market indicators returned to close in the green zone in the end of week two sessions, supported by the continued optimism state in controlling the traders’ morale, among a purchasing operation concentration on the leading and operational stocks, especially in the Banks and Real Estate sectors.

By the end of the last week, the KSE lost since the beginning of the year around KD 2.42 billion, as the market capitalization reached K.D. 22.85 billion, after being KD 25.27 billion by end of 2015, losing about 9.57 percent. On the weekly level, the market cap for KSE increased by 3.94 percent compared to a week earlier, where it was KD 21.98 billion.

On the other hand, the drop in prices of many stocks during last week’s trading caused the market cap to lose around KD 10.77 billion, to reach KD 9.65 billion, compared to KD 10.08 billion at the end of a week earlier.

Sectors’ Indices

Eight of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other four recorded declines. Last week’s highest gainer was the Health Care sector, achieving 5.20 percent growth rate as its index closed at 937.68 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Banks sector’s index closed at 799.83 points recording 5 percent increase. The Real Estate sector came in third as its index achieved 3.44 percent growth, ending the week at 819.95 points.

On the other hand, the Consumer Goods sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 1.37 percent to end the week’s activity at 998.13 points. The Insurance sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 0.93 percent, closing at 1,048.83 points, followed by the Oil & Gas sector, as its index closed at 745.58 points at a loss of 0.51 percent.

Sectors’ Activity

The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 263.99 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 31.70 percent of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 31.07 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 258.78 million shares.

On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around KD 28.40 million or 44.90 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was approx. KD 10.65 million representing 16.83 percent of the total market trading value. — Prepared by the Studies & Research Department, Bayan Investment Co.