KUWAIT CITY, Feb 6: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) managed to end the past week in the green zone with gains that are mostly attributed to last Thursday’s recorded growth. The activity during the first four days of the week was a continuation of the market’s adopted pattern since the beginning of the year, as trades were dominated by speculations that were followed by quick profit reaping transactions.
Last week, however, was economically eventful, as the cabinet approved the annual development plan for the year 2010-2011, authorizing KD 4.78 billion capital spending, which was then followed by the parliament’s approval of both the Development Plan and the Capital Market Authority bills in their second deliberation with minor opposition from members.

In addition, last week witnessed the first results’ announcements for KSE listed banks, as both National Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait Finance House declared good results for the year 2009, bringing back blue-chips to the forefront after a somehow complete domination of small stock over the course of trading during the preceding weeks.
Nevertheless, traders did not react to these events in the first trading sessions of the week as expected, due to their general uneasiness regarding the unannounced annual results of listed companies, and because of negative news surrounding leading listed companies. On the other hand, trading activity continued to decline for the second consecutive week, as average of daily turnover decreased by 7.43% to reach KD 58.80 million, whereas trading volume average amounted to 434.48 million shares, at a decline of 20.06% compared to previous week’s levels.
By the end of the week, the price index closed at 7,064.6 points, up by 0.43% from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 1.09% weekly gain after closing at 379.98 points.

Sectors’ Indices
All of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone except for one sector. Last week’s highest gainer was the Banks sector, achieving 2.96% growth rate as its index closed at 8,307.6 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Food sector’s index closed at 4,397.5 points recording 0.95% increase.
The Insurance sector came in third as its index achieved 0.69% growth, ending the week at 2,833.5 points. The Investment sector was the least growing as its index closed at 5,408.1 points with a 0.10% increase. On the other hand, the Real Estate sector was last week’s only loser as its index declined by 0.50% to end the week’s activity at 2,800.3 points.
The Services sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 687.95 million shares changing hands, representing 31.67% of the total market trading volume. The Investment sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 25.84% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 561.42 million shares.
On the other hand, the Services sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 89.06 million or 30.29% of last week’s total market trading value.
The Investment sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of KD 62.12 million represented 21.13% of the total market trading value.

Capitalization
KSE total market capitalization grew by 1.12% during last week to reach KD 29.07 billion, as six of KSE’s sectors recorded an increase in their respective market capitalization, whereas the other two recorded declines.
The Banks sector headed the growing sectors as its total market capitalization reached KD 10 billion, increasing by 3.88%. The Industry sector was the second in terms of recorded growth with 0.54% increase after the total value of its listed companies reached KD 2.60 billion.
The third place was for the Non-Kuwaiti companies sector, which total market capitalization reached KD 3.04 billion by the end of the week, recording an increase of 0.54%. The Investment sector was the least growing with 0.28% recorded growth after its market capitalization amounted to KD 3.07 billion.
On the other hand, the Services sector headed the decliners list as its total market capitalization decreased by 1.23% to reach, by the end of the week, KD 7.34 billion. The Real Estate sector was second on this list, which market value of its listed companies declined by 0.12%, reaching KD 1.99 billion.