The two trades that pushed Kuwait stocks up

A 24% surge in a stock price was enough to pull the benchmark up

It was a bleak day for emerging-market equities around the world on Wednesday, including Kuwait’s, until two trades in one tiny stock helped jolt the country’s main index into a rally to tie with Kazakhstan’s KASE as the top performers globally this year.

With a market capitalisation of 50.3 million Kuwaiti dinars (Dh606.3 million, $165 million), Eyas for Higher & Technical Education accounts for just one per cent of Kuwait Stock Exchange Index’s price weightings, but a 24 per cent surge in the stock price was enough to knock the benchmark out of its decline. Eyas invests in tertiary education and training services, according to the website of its parent company, Educational Holding Group.

“It is a stock that is not liquid, but still, it moved the market a lot,” said Samar Santini, who manages the equities institutional trading desk at Global Investment House in Kuwait City. Only two trades in Eyas shares occurred, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

While the education sector is currently the most attractive industry for equity investors in Kuwait, the move itself didn’t appear to have a catalyst, Santini said.

Educational Holding’s marketing and public relations department didn’t reply to an email and phone call seeking comment.

Liquidity in stock trading in the oil-rich country surged earlier this year. Using the index that considers market capitalisation in its calculation, Kuwait tracked most other global benchmarks on Wednesday, falling 0.6 per cent.

- Bloomberg