Kuwait Index Little Changed After Volatile Session

By John Mathews Arab Times Staff KUWAIT CITY, Nov 26: Kuwait stocks trod water on Thursday as it wrapped up the week on tame note. The All Shares Index ticked 1.75 points down in a volatile session to 5558.68 pts even as the overall mood remained mixed.

The Premier Market inched 1.87 pts higher to 6155.05 points while Main Market slipped 9.32 pts to 4374.93 points. The BK 50 Main index dialed up 1.65 points. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for the fourth straight session. Over 272 million shares changed hands – up 19 pct from the day before. The sectors closed mixed. Oil and Gas outshone the rest with 0.39 pct gain whereas Utilities shed 1.52 pct, the biggest loser of the day. Banking sector meanwhile continued to dominate in both volume and value with 128 million shares traded for KD 82.2 million.

In the individual shares, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rose 5 fils to 849 fils with heavy trading while Kuwait Finance House dialed down 2 fils after pushing 33.66 million shares and is down 31 fils from the start of the month. Humansoft Holding Co extended last session’s robust gains with 19 fils rise to KD 3.394. Zain fell 3 fils to 617 fils with a volume of 31.4 million and Ooredoo followed suit to end at 616 fils. stc was unchanged at 860 fils whereas logistics major Agility added 3 fils on back of over 10 million shares. KIPCO took in 1 fil with a volume of 1.5 million whereas Mabanee Co paused at 654 fils.

The market opened flat and headed south in early trade. The main index plumbed the day’s lowest level of 5522 pts almost an hour into the session and claw back into the green zone. It peaked at 5562 points in the final minutes before slipping back into the red at close. Top gainer of the day, Metal and Recycling Co soared 14.7 pct to 38.2 fils while Gulf Cement Co galloped 4.59 pct to start close behind. ALOLA skidded 5. Percent, the steepest decliner of the day and National Bank of Kuwait topped the volume with 55.5 million shares. Reflecting the day’s tame finish, the market spread as nearly even. 51 stocks advanced whereas 49 closed lower. Of the 123 counters active on Thursday, 23 closed flat. 20,365 deals worth KD 124 million were transacted during the session. National Industries Group was unchanged at 182 fils with a volume of over 4 million whereas Mezzan Holding gave up 5 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co dialed up 2 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co tripped 1 fil.

Integrated Holding held ground at 367 fils whereas Aznoula slipped 5 fils to 324 fils with a volume of 4.7 million shares. Jazeera Airways fell 4 fils to 615 fils and ALAFCO stood pat at 174 fils. EK Holding shed 17 fils and Inovest added 1.3 fils before ending at 71.2 fils. FutureKid climbed 3.8 fils to 78.9 fils with thin trading while YIACO closed flat at 495 fils. Oula Fuel was unchanged at 121 fils and Soor dialed up 1 fil. Kuwait Cement Co fell 3 fils to 227 fils whereas Kuwait Portland Cement sprinted 9 fils to 748 fils. Gulf Cement Co scaled 41 fils and QIC closed 3.5 fils in red. Educational Holding Co and Independent Petroleum Group were unchanged at 338 fils and 460 fils respectively whereas UPAC swung 15 fils lower. Combined Group Contracting Co paused at 186 fils. Kuwait Foundry Co fell 2 fils to 261 fils and Gulf Cable tripped 1 fil. Shuaiba Industrial jumped 16 fils to 176 fils whereas YIACO closed flat. ACICO Industries clipped 1 fil and NICBM dialed up 2 fils before ending at 153 fils. KCPC gained 5 fils while KPPC closed 2.1 fils in green. Burgan Well Drilling Co inched 0.5 fil up.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank was unchanged at 221 fils after moving 18 million shares and Burgan Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of 206 fils. Kuwait International Bank clipped 1 fil whereas Boubyan Bank stood pat at 624 fils. Ahli United Bank and Warba Bank too paused at 239 fils and 243 fils respectively. The market was largely upbeat during the week. The main index closed higher in three of the five sessions scaling 31 points weekon- week. It has gained 135 points from start of the month but is down 721 points year-to-date.

 

SOURCE : ARAB TIMES

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