KUWAIT CITY, Jan 24: Kuwait market pulled lower on Sunday as profit taking dragged stocks across the sectors after the recent gains. The index dropped 37.4 points in choppy trading weighed by blue chips, adding to the marginal fall in the previous session. National Bank of Kuwait and Agility led the day’s losses. The market mood remained cautious in absence of positive cues and also on account of expected weak results from the major companies in the financial and banking sectors.
The market wound up 0.5 percent lower at 7024 points amid a steep fall in volume turnover. Over 431 million shares were traded during the day - down 44 percent from the previous day. The volume had surged past the 800 million level on Wednesday and had traded above the 600 million mark for most part of last week. Meanwhile the weighted index dropped 5.01 points to 378.98 points.
National Bank of Kuwait sagged 20 fils to close at KD 1.080 after stagnating in the previous session. It saw a volume turnover of 0.96 million. Agility slid 3.2 percent after closing flat on Thursday. It winded up at KD 0.590 moving in a 30 fils range and the counter saw 4.7 million shares change hands.

Zain eroded 30 fils after trading over 5.3 million shares. It winded up at KD 0.950. Zain’s Saudi affiliate is in creditor talks after missing commitments on a $2.5-billion Islamic loan. “Zain is expected to report bad results, which increases negative sentiment,” Reuters quoted Shahid Hameed, head of asset mangement at Global Investment House.
Wataniya Telecom dropped 20 fils erasing an identical gain on Thursday. It closed at KD 1.520 and saw low volume turnover. Kuwait Gulf Links rose 6 fils on back of 9.74 million shares to close at KD 0.166.
Sectorwise food was the worst performer sliding 2.1 percent while banking and investment dropped 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent respectively. Services ended flat.
The market had been buoyant during the past week as brief spells of buying bolstered the trading floor. The index closed higher in three of the five sessions, adding 67 points week-on-week. It has climbed 53 points since the start of the month. The bourse, battered by weak earning by most of the leading listed companies and slew of adverse factors, had eroded 8 percent in 2009.
“Overall, the Kuwaiti market is under pressure with widespread losses”, Hameed noted “The reason Kuwait has not fallen as much as the other markets is because the structure is different, for example the index is a price-weighted index rather than a market cap-weighted index.”

Decliners
Among other notable decliners, Gulf Cables tumbled 100 fils while sector bellwether National Industries Group was down 10 fils at KD 0.335. Kuwait Pipes fell 6 fils to KD 0.198 and Kuwait Cement Co dropped 20 fils. The counter saw a volume turnover of 1.66 million shares. Kuwait Food Co ( Americana) dived 80 fils wiping the gains on Thursday. It close at KD 1.420 and saw razor thin trading volume.
Kuwait Portland Cement Co however bucked the trend to gain 20 fils. It winded up at KD 0.950. Shuaiba Industrial Co and Boubyan Petrochemical Co lost 10 fils each whereas Oula Fuel Marketing Company climbed 25 fils to settle at KD 0.425.
In the bourse related news, the paid up capital of KSE listed Gulf Finance House B.S.C has been changed due to a Murabaha Converting transaction of USD 10 million by 26,315,789 shares effective Jan 21, 2010. The distribution of shares are as follows: - previous total outstanding shares: 1,830,543,093; new total outstanding shares: 1,856,858,882; previous total paid up capital $604,079,221 and new total paid up capital $612,763,431.
Bank of Kuwait and Middle East announced selling its stake amounting to 8,750,000 shares in Ahli United Bank-Egypt at EGP37 per share. The bank received KD 17 million from the sale of the above mentioned shares notched a net profit of KD 645,000 from the transaction.
The banking stocks closed mostly in the red. Commercial Bank dropped 20 fils to end at KD 0.930 while Gulf Bank held the ground unchanged at KD 0.285 after trading 1.28 million shares. Al Ahli Bank and Bank of Kuwait and Middle East were not traded during the day.
Kuwait Finance House pulled 20 fils lower extending an identical drop in the previous session and winded up at KD 1.060. Burgan Bank did not budge from its previous close of KD 0.315. The lender has received Central Bank’s approved to repurchase or sell a 10% maximum of its issued shares over a six-month period, as of the current approval expiry on Feb 5, 2010. The approval is subject to adherence by the bank to CBK’s buyback rules and regulations.

Results
In more from the results front, Kuwait Building Materials Manufacturing Company announced its financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2009. It reveals a net profit of KD 563,950 and earnings per share of 21.5 fils compared to a profit of KD 549,396 and earnings per share of 20.9 for the same period in 2008.
Pearl of Kuwait Real Estate Company announced financial statements for the three month-period ended June 30, 2009 revealed a net profit of KD 245,422 and Earnings per Share of 0.98 fils compared to a profit of KD 8,110,220 and Earnings per Share of 32.23 for the same period in 2008. The six-month period ended June 30, 2009 the company posted a net loss amounting to KD 4,784,420 and loss per share of 19.02 fils.
Investment stocks too mostly saw marginal losses during the day. National Investment Co edged 10 fils lower to KD 0.315 while International Financial Advisors closed unchanged at KD 0.106. The counter posted a trading volume of KD 0.106. KIPCO edged 5 fils higher to KD 0.480 whereas Securities Group eroded 10 fils. It close at KD 0.232 with low volume. International Investment Group inched 1 fils lower whereas Aref Investment Co rose 4 fils.
Aayan Leasing and Investment Company and Bayan Investment Co flunked 1 fils each to KD 0.082 and KD 0.069 respectively whereas Global Investment House was down 3 fils at KD 0.080 after incurring an identical loss on Thursday. KAMCO climbed 10 fils to close at KD 0.405 and Al Deera Holding eased 2 fils after trading 26.48 million shares.
Al Safat Investment Co fell 4 fils while Al Madina For Finance and Investment Co edged 2 fils lower. Noor Financial Investment Co was down 1 fils at KD 0.090. Noor has logged a third quarter profit of KD 253.261 and earnings per share of 0.26 fils against a loss of KD 3,746,396 and loss per share of 5.08 fils for the same period last year.
The market opened on negative note and pulled sharply lower in early trading. The index slid to the day’s lowest of 6995 points on strong bout of profit taking in many counters. It recovered slightly and traded below the opening mark for the rest of the session as sentiments turned brittle and closed with modest losses.
The top gainer of the day, Mushrif Trading and Contracting Company spiked 6.6 percent to KD 0.160 while Oula Fuel Marketing Company climbed 6.25 percent to stand next. Strategia Investment Co slid 10.7 percent, the steepest decliner of the day, while Abyaar Real Estate Co topped the volume with over 38 million shares changing hands. 6415 deals worth KD 55.89 were transacted - down 27 percent in value over previous session.