KUWAIT CITY, Feb 6: Kuwait stocks pulled lower Monday after treading water in the previous session. The market shed 17.8 points amid profit taking in some of the mid and low caps even as heavyweights closed narrowly mixed. The trading floor sentiment was subdued as investors eye further political developments after the election of MPs. The bourse wound up at 5,840.20 points paring steeper losses earlier in the day, while weighted index inched 1.8 points lower to 404.16 points. The volume turnover saw a moderate swell after rising in the previous session. It had hit a multi-month high of 420.81 million on 25th January and has been on upswing in the second half of last month.

Zain fell 10 fils partly erasing the strong gains in the previous session and wound up at KD 0.870. Agility however bucked the market trend to gain 10 fils following a favorable court verdict and Wataniya Telecom held the ground unchanged at KD 2.000. The stock had added 60 fils during whole of January.
Among other movers, National Industries Group eased 2 fils to KD 0.220 and Kuwait Pipes too was down by same measure. Gulf Cables dropped 20 fils KD 1.440 and Kuwait Portland Cement followed suit to end at KD 0.700. National Industries Co fell 10 fils and ACICO Industries ticked 2 fils lower.
Kuwait Food Co was down 20 fils at KD 1.440 and Combined Group Contracting Co followed suit to wind up at KD 1,540. The company earlier in the month signed a 3-year contract worth $94,021,914 with The Ministry of Communications in The Republic of Tajikistan.

Climbed
On the upside, Kuwait National Cinema Co climbed 60 fils to KD 1.080 and Sultan Centre took in 2 fils with a volume turnover of 1.1 million shares. Jazeera Airways rose 5 fils to KD 0.460 and Hits Telecom was up 10 fils at KD 0.114. The counter saw 4,3 million shares change hands.
The market opened weak and drifted lower in early trading as investors exited select positions on profit taking. It continued to erode and hit the day’s lowest level of 5,834.3 points past the mid-session. It clawed back thereafter as sentiments firmed up and managed to trim the losses slightly at close.
Top gainer of the day, Marakez spiked 10 percent to 55 fils and First Takaful Insurance rose 9.8 percent to stand next. Al Safat slid 7.57 percent , the biggest loser of the day, while Al Madina For Finance and Investment topped the volume with 49.08 million shares.
Reflecting the day’s fall, the losers outnumbered the gainers. 25 stocks advanced while 52 closed lower. Of the 106 counters active on Monday, 28 closed flat. 3724 deals worth KD 27.80 million were transacted — up 2.1 percent in value from previous session.

“The main question after the elections is whether anybody who has been newly elected will actually bring about any change,” Reuters quoted a Kuwait-based trader on Sunday. “There is an indirect impact on the market on sentiment. Overall, the trading pattern has not changed. Small-caps will continue to dominate volumes.”
In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait was flat at KD 1.180 off early highs and saw a volume turnover of 0.99 million shares and Gulf Bank followed suit to close at KD 0.730. Commercial Bank dropped 20 fils to KD 0.730. The lender had allocated most part of its operating profit in 2011 for loan provisions. Al Ahli Bank was down 10 fils at KD 0.660 and Ahli United Bank too was down by same measure. Fitch Ratings early in January has affirmed AUB’S Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘BBB+’ and Viability Rating (VR) at ‘bbb+’. The Outlook on the Long-term IDR is Stable.

Flat
Kuwait International Bank closed flat at KD 0.246 and Burgan Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of KD 0.465. Burgan Bank has won the approval of Central Bank of Kuwait to extend buying back a maximum of 10 percent of its issued shares for a period of 6 months as of the expiry of the current approval on Feb 5, 2012.
Kuwait Finance House stagnated at KD 0.850 after trading 1.43 million. The stock had shed 40 fils during whole of January. Boubyan Bank followed suit to end at KD 0.580.
Investment major KIPCO rose 5 fils on back of 1.25 million shares whereas National Investment Co eased 4 fils. International Financial Advisors inched 1 fils up on back of 35.12 million shares. International Finance Co dropped 6 fils to KD 0.112 while First Investment Co and Al Maal Investment fell 2 fil each. Al Safat Investment eased 5 fils.

The bourse has been negative so far during the week and has shed 16.2 pts from close of last week. The benchmark has retreated 28.9 pts from start of the month after eking marginal rise in December. KSE, with 213 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region. In the bourse related news, NBK Capital, the investment banking arm of the lender, is selling its stake in Saudi fleet leasing and car rental firm Hanco and may also cash out in an initial public offering for its Turkish investment Kilic Deniz.
Alargan International Real Estate Co. announced obtaining the Money Markets Authority to issue bonds up to KD 26.5 Mill divided over 2 portions with a maturity of 5 years.
KSE has lifted the ban on trading of Ekttitab Holding Co’s share with effect from January 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 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.