Kuwait bourse closes week with downswing – Agility dives 50 fils; Americana gains

This news has been read 6960 times!

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 9: Kuwait stocks headed south on Thursday to wind up the week on a sour note. The price index slid 72.78 pts in volatile session to 6582.78 points on broad profit taking led by banks and real estate shares.

The KSX 15 benchmark dropped 16.98 pts to 962.07 points while weighted index was down 5.52 pts at 420.28 points. The volume turnover meanwhile shrank following Wednesday’s bounce. 531.8 million shares changed hands – a 10.4 pct drop from previous session.

Among prominent losers, National Bank of Kuwait dropped 10 fils to 720 fils erasing last session’s gains and Kuwait Finance House followed suit to end at 600 fils with a volume of over 3 million. Investment conglomerate KIPCO too gave up 10 fils before settling at 520 fils.

Zain slipped 10 fils to 490 fils after trading 17.7 million shares and Wataniya Telecom (Ooredoo) stood pat at KD 1.260 off steep early lows. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) paused at 870 fils and Agility tumbled 50 fils to 700 fils.

Burgan Bank gave up 5 fils to close at 320 fils and Kuwait International Bank slipped 4 fils. The bank’s fourth quarter earnings rose to KD 4.72 m in last quarter of 2016 from KD 4.25 mln in same period last year. The board has recommended a cash dividend of 10 pct for FY16.

The market opened firm but slipped into red in early trade. The price index vacillated along the opening mark and scaled the day’s highest level of 6677.37 points almost half way into the session. It retreated thereafter as profit taking kicked in and bottomed at 6559.92 points in the final minutes before closing with steep losses.

Top gainer of the day, Equipment Holding Co rallied 8.77 pct to 62 fils and Yiaco climbed 7.14 percent to stand next. National Real Estate Co slid 8 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Abyaar Real Estate topped the volume with 56.9 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s slide, the market spread was skewed towards the losers. 33 stocks advanced whereas 87 closed lower. Of the 147 counters active on Thursday, 27 closed flat.

National Industries Group slipped 4 fils to 144 fils and Gulf Cable shed 20 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co dipped 10 fils to 228 fils while Contracting and Marine Services Co was unchanged at 63 fils.

Jazeera Airways dropped 20 fils to 650 fils whereas ALAFCO was unchanged at 250 fils off slight early highs. ACICO Industries was flat at 300 fils and Boubyan Petrochemical Co shed 20 fils. Al Qurain Petrochemical Co bucked the trend to close 10 fils higher.

Kuwait Food Co (Americana) climbed 20 fils to KD 2.640 and Kuwait National Cinema Co dipped 20 fils to 220 fils. Humansoft Holding and Combined Group Contracting Co paused at KD 3.000 and 500 fils respectively.

Kuwait Cement Co was flat at 485 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement followed suit. The company has registered a net profit of KD 1.84 million in fourth quarter of 2016.

Gained

Kuwait Foundry Co gained 15 fils whereas RISCO slipped 5 fils to 300 fils. The company logged losses of KD 720,000 in the last quarter and in the fiscal year 2016, earnings totaled KD 3.93 million.

Automated Systems Co and NICBM took in 2 fils each whereas AWJ Holding clipped 2 fils to wind up at 100 fils. Al Rai Media Group rose 6 fils to 176 fils.

Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co eased 1 fil to 59 fils and KGL Logistics Co followed suit to end at 73 fils off slight early highs. Zimah Holding Co dialed down 2 fils whereas Mezzan Holding Co stood pat at 950 fils. In the banking sector, Gulf Bank fell 2 fils to 248 fils after trading over 1 million shares whereas Commercial Bank and Ahli United Bank paused at 500 fils and 435 fils respectively.

Boubyan Bank slipped 5 fils to 410 fils and Warba Bank was down 4 fils at 246 fils with a volume of over 10 million shares. Al Ahli Bank gave up 5 fils to close at 310 fils.

National Investment Co fell 4 fils to 136 fils whereas Kuwait Investment Co inched 1 fil higher. International Financial Advisors eased 2.5 fils to 41 fils while Coast Investment Co and Unicap clipped 2 fils each.

KAMCO and KFIC was unchanged at 87 fils and 47 fils respectively whereas Osoul Investment Co inched 1 fil into green. Bayan Investment Co slipped 2.5 fils and Al Deera Holding was down by same measure.

KMEFIC edged 0.5 fil into green and Al Aman gave up 2 fils to close at 52 fils. International Financial Advisors and Ektittab Holding both closed 2.5 fils lower and Tamdeen Investment Co stalled at 310 fils.

Ahleia Insurance Co climbed 15 fils to 470 fils and Wethaq Takaful slipped 4 fils. Securities House Co slipped 3 fils to 51 fils after trading 11.2 million shares.

Mabanee Co slud 30 fils and National Real Estate Co was down 15 fils with a volume of 15.3 million. Mazaya Holding dropped 6 fils to 122 fils.

The market seesawed during the week. The main index closed lower in three of the five sessions and tanked 264 points week-on-week. It has dived 249 points from start of the month but has gained 14.52 pct year-to-date. KSE, with 208 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region.

In the bourse related news, Boubyan Bank’s fourth quarter profit rose 13.5 pct year-on-year to KD 11.44 million from KD 10.08 million in Q4- of 2015. For the full year , profit was up 16.6 pct to KD 41.07 mln from KD 35.24 million in 2015.

Al Mowasat Health Care has posted KD 1.8 million profits during the fourth quarter of 2016 and for the fiscal year of 2016, earnings rose 35.3 pct to KD 4.52 million from the year before. The board of directors has recommended a dividend payout of 20% or 20 fils per share.

Injazzat Real Estate Development has posted a net profit of KD 550,000 in the last quarter of 2016 and during the fiscal year of 2016, the bank earned KD 3.2 million. The board of Injazzat has recommended a cash dividend of 5% or 5 fils per share for FY 2016, with a total value of KD 2.03 million.

Jeeran Holding Co. has logged a net profit of KD 431,750 and earnings per share of 3.17 fils in the first nine-month of 2016 up sharply from net profit of KD 177,518 and earnings per share of 1.30 fils in the 9M of 2015.

Kuwait Building Materials Mfg. has registered a net profit of KD 159,204 and earnings per share of 5.3 fils in the January-September period as against net profit of KD 363,059 and earnings per share of 12 fils in the same period last year.

By John Mathews

Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 6960 times!