Kuwait Stock Exchange’s Weekly Activity, 14-Jul-2016
Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week with mixed performance. The Price Index closed at 5,390.70 points, up by 0.02% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.61% after closing at 348.97 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 797.63 points down by 0.98%. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover increased by 20.49%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 7.10 million, whereas trading volume average was 61.64 million shares, recording an increase of 17.04%.
The three stock market indices witnessed mixed closings for the second consecutive week, as the Weighted and KSX-15 declined affected by the increased selling pressures and profit collection operations executed on the large-cap and heavy stocks, while the Price Index was able to realize some increase in light of the active quick speculative operations that included some small-cap stocks, amid an increase in the average daily trading activity compared to the previous week.
As per the daily trading activity, the market witnessed in the first session after Eid Al-Fitr holiday a negative performance that pushed its three indices to record decrease by the end of the session, whereas the market was subject to selling operations concentrated on the stocks that are expected to have a drop in its financial results for the first half of the current year, in addition to the concentration of the purchasing operations on a limited number of the leading stocks that are expected to realize good financial results, however the turnout of the first session of the week was negative, and the three market indices closed the session in the red zone. The market continued its second session of the last week following the same behavior it took in the first session, as all its indices declined in light of the continued selling pressures in controlling over the trading direction, amid a noticeable increase in the trading activity.
On Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s sessions, the market witnessed mixed closings for the three indices, whereas the Price Index was able to realize some gain in the two sessions amid the return of the purchasing activity on the investment groups, in addition to the quick speculative operations that concentrated on the small-cap stocks, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices continued its downward direction among an active selling operation that concentrated on the leading and heavy stocks. Also, the market witnessed in the last session of the week a slight increase for the three indices in light of the random purchasing operations that included few leading and small-cap stocks, with some drop in the value.
By the end of last week, the market capitalization reached K.D. 22.77 billion down by 0.56% compared to its level in a week earlier, where it reached then K.D. 22.90 billion, however on the annual level, the market cap for the listed companies in KSE declined by 9.88% from its value at end of 2015, where it reached then K.D. 25.27 billion.
As far as KSE annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 4% annual loss compared to its closing in 2015, while the weighted index decreased by 8.57%, and the KSX-15 recorded 11.42% loss.
Sectors’ Indices
Six of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other six recorded declines. Last week’s highest gainer was the Technology sector, achieving 4.30% growth rate as its index closed at 992.75 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Health Care sector’s index closed at 1,013.42 points recording 2.12% increase. The Basic Materials sector came in third as its index achieved 0.48% growth, ending the week at 969.61 points.
On the other hand, the Oil & Gas sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 2.27% to end the week’s activity at 774.79 points. The Telecommunications sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 1.52%, closing at 604.08 points, followed by the Insurance sector, as its index closed at 1,017.62 points at a loss of 0.98%.
Sectors’ Activity
The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 96.12 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 31.19% of the total market trading volume. The Consumer Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 16.09% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 49.59 million shares.
On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around K.D 15.63 million or 44.05% of last week’s total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was approx. K.D 4.94 million representing 13.92% of the total market trading value.