KUWAIT CITY, Jan 10: Kuwait stocks staged modest rebound Tuesday, stemming the 7-day decline. The index climbed 26.2 points after a wobbly start helped by renewed buying in banks and some of the mid-caps. The bourse had hit a 7-year low last week has been drifting lower from start of the year amid weak sentiments even as investors await the earnings. The index wound up at 5,720.30 points off early lows while weighted index edged 2.42 points higher to 399.08. The volume turnover soared further adding to the increase in the day before. 274.25 million shares changed hands - a 21.7 percent jump from Monday and is the highest level so far during the month. National Bank of Kuwait rose 20 fils recouping the drop in the day before and closed at KD 1.140. Al Ahli Bank added 10 fils to settle at KD 0.650 and Ahli United Bank followed suit to end at KD 0.820 after closing lower in the previous session.
Burgan Bank was up 5 fils at KD 0.465 and Gulf Bank too rose by same measure to wind up at KD 0.495. Standard & Poor’s earlier in December had upgraded Gulf Bank’s long-term credit rating of BBB- to BBB, and raised the Bank’s outlook from stable to positive.

Agility gained 10 fils reversing the loss on Monday whereas Zain held the ground unchanged at KD 0.860 after trading in tight range. The counter saw 3.72 million shares change hands. Wataniya Telecom too did not budge from its earlier close of KD 1.920. Among other notable gainers, National Industries Group climbed 6 fils on back of 2.26 million shares and Kuwait Pipes added 4 fils to end at KD 0.128. Safwan Trading and Contracting Co jumped 40 fils to KD 0.560 while ALAFCO and Oula Fuel Marketing Co gained 10 fils each. Jazeera Airways added 10 fils to end at KD 0.470. On the downside, Gulf Cables dived 40 fils to KD 1.380 and Independent Petroleum Group dropped 20 fils to KD 0.300. Combined Group Contracting Co too was down 20 fils at KD 1.520 after stagnating on Monday. The company has announced signing a 3-year contract worth $ 94,021,914 with The Ministry of Communications in The Republic of Tajikistan.

The market opened weak and slipped into red in early trade as investors continued to exit positions amid weak sentiment. The index hit the day’s lowest of 5,683.7 points and clawed back thereafter as buying commenced in select counters at low levels. It edged above the opening mark and drifted sideways before peaking at 5,720.3 points at close.
Top gainer of the day, Al Salam Group Holding Co climbed over 8 percent to KD 0.134 while Safwan Trading Co was up 7.6 percent to stand next. Contracting and Marine Services Co slid 9.43 percent, the biggest decliner of the day, while Kuwait Business Town Real Estate Co topped the volume with 56.16 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s gain, the winners outnumbered the losers. 55 stocks advanced while 18 closed lower. Of the 91 counters active on Tuesday, 25 closed flat. 3110 deals worth KD 25.27 million were transacted - a 14 percent rise in value from the previous session.
“Kuwait’s market is underperforming,” Reuters quoted Shahid Hameed, Global Investment House head of asset management for the Gulf region. “The market still has structural issues — banks dominate, plus a couple of telecoms companies and then some others such as Agility and Kipco.
“The rest are largely real estate and investment companies, which are facing major challenges in terms of profitability and liquidity and many are heavily invested in Dubai real estate, which remains in trouble,” he added.

Flat
In the banking sector, Commercial Bank of Kuwait closed flat at KD 0.770 and Kuwait International Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of KD 0.244. Commercial Bank had shed 130 fils during whole of 2011 and has eased 20 fils from start of the month.
Kuwait Finance House stagnated at KD 0.870 after trading 3.07 million shares. Saudi unit of Kuwait Finance House, has earned 360 million riyals profit from the sale of a real estate project. Boubyan Bank followed suit to wind up at KD 0.590.
National Investment Co rebounded 8 fils on back of 2.42 million shares to close at KD 0.170 and International Financial Advisers inched 0.5 fils higher to 40.5 fils with a volume of 24.16 million shares. KIPCO was unchanged at KD 0.295 off early lows.
Kuwait Financial Centre Co (Markaz) added 4 fils while Al Maal edged 2.5 fils higher.
Bayan Investment ticked 1 fils higher while Al Tamdeen Investment Co rose 2 fils. The company has obtained the approval of Capital Market Authority to extend buying back a maximum of 10% of its shares for a period of 6 months ending on April 16, 2012.
The bourse had been weak so far during the week and has eroded 6.6 points from close of last week. The index has dived 93.9 pts so far during the month after shedding 17 percent during whole of 2011. KSE, with 213 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region.
In the bourse related news, KSE has lifted the ban on trading of Ekttitab Holding Co’s share with effect from Jan 4, 2012. This move follows the fall in shareholders’ holding following the reduction of capital from KD 51,700,000 to KD 22,862,423.

The bourse authorities have announced suspension of Burgan Well Drilling Co with effect from January 2, 2012 for failing to pay annual membership fee for 2011/2012.
KSE listed companies have logged a 3.2 percent decline in third quarter profit to hit KD 923 million, according to Al Joman Center for Economic Consultancy. Investment sector, the biggest decliner, saw a 98 percent drop in earnings followed by the real estate sector which eroded 19 percent.
Al Safat Real Estate Co has posted a net loss of KD 1,435,068 and loss 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 Sept 30. This compares with net profit of KD 738,187 and earnings per share of 1.5 fils in the same period last year.