KUWAIT CITY, Jan 9: Kuwait Stock Exchange’s (KSE) activity during the first week of 2010 was characterized by cautiousness and anticipation, which explains the selective purchase transactions that were witnessed in some of the week’s sessions on one hand, and the quick profit taking on the other.
The market witnessed a huge drop on the first day of the week, following the registered gains of the week before that were mainly attributed to last minutes’ trades.
But KSE was able on the following day to compensate a large portion of Monday’s losses amid active trades, and then began to fluctuate in the following two days, displaying, however, an overall stable performance despite of the apparent effect of profit reaping transactions.
By the end of the week, the price index closed at 7,011.6 points, up by 0.09% from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 0.14% weekly gain after closing at 386.30 points.
Furthermore, KSE witnessed growth in trading activity, as average of daily turnover grew by 8.85% to reach KD 52.67 million, whereas trading volume average amounted to 431.12 million shares, at an increase of 45.57% compared to previous week’s levels.

Sectors’ Indices
Four of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, three recorded increases, whereas the Insurance sector’s index closed with no change from the week before. Last week’s highest gainer was the Food sector, achieving 1.93% growth rate as its index closed at 4,267.6 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Banks sector’s index closed at 8,453.3 points recording 1.28% increase. The Services sector came in third as its index achieved 0.66% growth, ending the week at 14,784.9 points.
On the other hand, the Investment sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 0.95% to end the week’s activity at 5,553.5 points. The Non- Kuwaiti companies sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 0.47%, closing at 7,285.3 points, followed by the Industry sector, as its index closed at 5,424.0 points at a loss of 0.27%. The Real Estate sector was the least declining as its index closed at 2,790.7 points with a 0.05% decrease.

Sectors’ Activity
The Investment sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 722.62 million shares changing hands, representing 41.90% of the total market trading volume. The Services sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 25.44% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 438.67 million shares.
On the other hand, the Services sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 69.18 million or 32.84% of last week’s total market trading value. The Investment sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 67.82 million represented 32.19% of the total market trading value.

Market Capitalization
KSE total market capitalization grew by 0.21% during last week to reach KD 29.28 billion, as two of KSE’s sectors recorded an increase in their respective market capitalization, five recorded declines, whereas the Insurance sector’s market capitalization remained the same from the week before. The Food sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 735.66 million, increasing by 2.43%. The Banks sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 1.38% increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 9.94 billion.
On the other hand, The Services sector headed the declines list as its total market capitalization reached KD 7.77 billion, decreasing by 0.76%. The Industry sector was the second in terms of recorded decline with 0.64% decrease after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 2.53 billion.
The third place was for the Real Estate sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 1.93 billion by the end of the week, recording a decline of 0.42%. The Non-Kuwaiti companies sector was the least declining with 0.09% recorded decrease after its market capitalization amounted to KD 2.88 billion.