Kuwait bourse extends gains; volume bounces

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NBK rallies 5 fils, Agility slips

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 3: Kuwait stocks revved up on Thursday to close the week on a robust note. The All Shares Index climbed 29.32 points to 5,138.94 pts helped by strong buying in banking stocks and some of the mid-caps.

The Prime Market jumped 35.55 pts to 5,340.51 points while Main Market climbed 17.85 pts to 4,772.58 points. The volume turnover meanwhile surged past the 200 million mark. Over 238 million shares changed hands – a 40.9 pct jump from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in the green turf. Telecommunications outpaced the rest with 1.64 pct gain whereas consumer services shed 2 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, real estate notched the highest market share of 40.47 pct while financial services trailed with 26 percent.

Among the notable performers, National Bank of Kuwait rallied 5 fils on back of 3.2 million shares and Kuwait Finance House scaled 6 fils with a volume of 4.5 million shares. Humansoft Holding gained 26 fils to wind up at KD 3.284. Zain sprinted 10 fils to 464 fils after trading over 4 million shares and Ooredoo dialed down 2 fils.

Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) rose 4 fils to 802 fils whereas Agility gave up 4 fils to end at 801 fils. The market opened firm and nudged higher in early trade. The main index continued to climb amid strong buying in some of the heavyweights and turned flattish about an hour into the session. It moved sideways thereafter before revving up in the final minutes to close well above the opening mark.

Top gainer of the day, Equipment Holding rallied 10.2 pct to 30 fils and Warba Insurance sprinted 10 pct to stand close behind. IFA Hotels and Resorts skidded 20.5 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Abyaar topped the volume with over 47 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s gains, the market spread was heavily skewed towards the winners. 72 stocks advanced whereas 35 closed lower. Of the 125 counters active on Thursday, 18 closed flat. 6924 deals worth KD 25.7 million were transacted – a 63.9 pct spike in value from the day before. National Industries Group rallied 4 fils on back of over 5 million shares to end at 162 fils and Mezzan Holding was unchanged at 500 fils.

Boubyan Petrochemical Co fell 2 fils to 988 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co scaled 8 fils to end at 366 fils. Jazeera Airways rose 7 fils to 747 fils extending last session’s gains while ALAFCO stood pat at 350 fils, Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co slipped 6 fils to 432 fils and Marakez gave up 2.3 fils to close at 21.2 fils.

Gulf Cable fell 3 fils to 352 fils. Kuwait Cement Co slipped 4 fils to 374 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement slid 26 fils to KD 1.120. ACICO Industries climbed 7 fils to 158 fils and NICBM held ground at 200 fils.

Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co ticked 0.1 fil higher to 93.6 fils and KGL Logistics inched 0.2 fil up. Kuwait National Cinema Co and Independent Petroleum Group were flat at KD 1.040 and 405 fils respectively.

Combined Group Contracting Co fell 4 fils to 310 fils and Mashaer Holding was down 3.5 fils at 84 fils. Inovest added 1,1 fils and Educational Holding Group gained 10 fils. In the banking sector, Gulf Bank and Ahli United Bank tripped 1 fil each to close at 254 fils and 208 fils respectively whereas Kuwait International Bank was up 3 fils at 270 fils on back of 6.7 million shares. Commercial Bank jumped 10 fils to 520 fils.

Burgan Bank climbed 4 fils to 284 fils with a volume of 2.2 million shares and Boubyan Bank extended Wednesday’s gains with a 6 fils sprint to 619 fils. Warba Bank took in 1 fil and Al Ahli Bank dialed up 2 fils. Al Mutahed paused at 297 fils. KIPCO took in 1 fil to end at 210 fils while Kuwait Investment Co and International Financial Advisors were unchanged at 131 fils and 28.5 fils respectively. Coast Investment Co tripped 0.1 fils and Securities House Co added 1.5 fils. Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) stood pat at 100 fils while KFIC and Unicap dialed up 1 fil each.

National Investment Co added 1.2 fils and KMEFIC trimmed 0.4 fil before ending at 32.5 fils. Al Mal Investment ticked 0.2 fil up. Noor Financial Investment Co trimmed 0.5 fil and Sokouk Holding clipped 0.4 fil before settling at 39.6 fils. Aayan Investment took in 0.1 fil and Ektittab Holding eased 0.1 fil. Al Deera Holding added 1.6 fils and Al Madina dialed up 0.8 fil. Gulf Insurance climbed 5 fils to 660 fils with thin trading and Ahleia Insurance Co gave up 2 fils. First Takaful eased 0.1 fil to 48.4 fils and Wethaq Takaful took in 2 fils to close at 29.9 fils.

Mabanee Co fell 1 fil to 617 fils while Kuwait Real Estate and Aqar Real Estate paused at 55 fils and 61.2 fils respectively. United Real Estate tripped 1 fil and National Real Estate Co edged 0.4 fil into green. Mazaya Holding ticked 0.2 fil up. The bourse was buoyant during the week.

The main index closed higher in all four sessions gaining 77 pts week-week after skidding 70 pts during whole of December. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region

By John Mathews Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 29643 times!

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