KUWAIT CITY, Dec 28: Kuwait stocks nudged lower on Wednesday, plumbing fresh month’s low. The index slipped 3.9 points in volatile trade led by some of the middle level stocks The heavyweights remained largely subdued even as investors toed caution.
The bourse wound up at 5,786.80 points extending the loss to the third consecutive session, whereas weighted index inched 0.1 points higher to 402.4. The volume turnover receded below the 100 million mark for the first time during the month. 98.71 million shares changed hands — down 16.5 percent from the day before.
Among the prime movers, National Industries Group fell 5 fils to KD 0.250 after stagnating on Tuesday while Kuwait Portland Cement dived 50 fils. RISCO was down 10 fils at KD 0.168 after trading 0.5 million shares and ACICO Industries Co dropped 6 fils.
Bourse heavyweight Zain held the ground unchanged at KD 0.880 after trading in red earlier in the day. The counter saw 6.3 million shares change hands. Agility too was unchanged at KD 0.370 after swaying in a moderate range and Wataniya Telecom followed suit to close at KD 1.940. The stock has gained 40 fils so far during the month.
Safwan Trading and Contracting Co shed 20 fils whereas United Projects Group gained 15 fils to end at KD 0.325. Aref Energy Holding Co edged 2 fils lower to KD 0.104 and Kuwait Gulf Links followed suit to settle at KD 0.102.
The market opened weak and slipped lower in early trade. The index continued to drift lower amid weak sentiment and fell sharply almost half way into the session. It moved sideways before bottoming at 5754.9 points and managed to trim the losses to a great extent in the final minutes.

Soared
Top gainer of the day, First Takaful Insurance Co soared 65 percent to KD 0.124 while United Gulf Bank climbed 10.75 percent to stand next. Al Rai Media slid 7.4 percent, the steepest decliner of the day, and Al Salam topped the volume with 10.6 million shares.
The market spread was skewed towards the losers. 16 stocks advanced while 39 closed lower. Of the 99 counters active on Wednesday, 43 closed flat. 1849 deals worth KD 22.28 million were transacted — a 5.2 percent increase in value from the day before.
In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait was flat at KD 1.120 after trading 3.18 million shares while Gulf Bank was up 10 fils on back of 1.57 million shares. The lender has posted a net profit of KD 27.4 million in the first nine months of 2011 while the earnings per share came in at 11 fils. Commercial Bank of Kuwait and Al Ahli Bank were not traded during the session.
Al Ahli United Bank rose 10 fils to KD 0.810 and Kuwait International Bank was unchanged at KD 0.200. Burgan Bank too held the ground unchanged at KD 0.470 with a volume of 2.97 million. The stock has added 5 fils from start of the month and is trading 160 fils lower year-to-date.
Kuwait Finance House was steady at KD 0.890 paring early loss. Standard & Poor’s has affirmed its ‘A-/A-2’ long-and short-term credit ratings for KFH and maintained a Stable outlook. The rating agency cited strong liquidity, revenue and capital adequacy ratio (CAR). Boubyan Bank was flat at KD 0.590.
National Investment Co fell 4 fils to KD 0.174 with a volume of 3.88 million and KIPCO was down 5 fils at KD 0.305. The company’s net profit stood at KD 7.1 million in the three-month period while consolidated assets fell 3 per cent to KD 5.49 billion.
First Investment Co added 2 fils while Al Maal Investment Co and Bayan Investment Co both ticked 1 fils higher. Al Tamdeen Investment Co was unchanged at KD 0.156 and Sultan Centre followed suit. The company chalked net losses of KD 5.6 million or 10 fils per share, for the first nine months of 2011.

Eased
Jazeera Airways eased 5 fils to close at KD 0.450. The company has posted a net profit of KD 6.1 million in third quarter, up 36 percent from last year while in the first nine-months it posted a net profit of KD 9.2 million.
The bourse has been negative so far during the week and has slipped 3.4 points from end of last week. It has shed 20.9 points so far during the month and is trading 16 percent lower year-to-date. KSE, with 213 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region.
In the bourse related news, Al Safat Real Estate Co has posted a net loss of KD 1,435,068 and l oss per share of 5.98 fils in the first nine-months of the year as compared to a net loss of KD 745,249 and loss per share of 3.11 fils in the same period last year.
Al Aman Investment Co has posted a net loss of KD 1,581,185 and loss per share 3.3 fils in the nine-month period ending Sep 30. This compares with net profit of KD 738,187 and earnings per share of 1.5 fils in the same period last year.

The third quarter profit of the KSE listed companies have fallen by 3.2 percent to hit KD 923 million , according to Al Joman Center for Economic Consultancy. This compares with KD 965 million for the same period last year. Investment sector was the worst performer logging 98 percent drop followed by the real estate sector which slumped by 19 percent. Kuwait bourse authorities have halted trading in Global Investment House saying its accumulated losses to the end of September had exceeded 75 percent of its capital, contravening market rules.
Global has logged a net loss of KD 54,224,000 and loss per share of 44 fils in the nine-months period ending September 2011 as against net loss of KD 46,241,000 and loss per share of 38 fils in the same period last year.
International Finance Co. has posted net loss of KD 4,609,831 and loss per share of 7.42 fils in the first six months of the year as against net loss of KD 3,654,802 and loss per share of 7.86 fils in the same period last year