Kuwait Stock Exchange’s Weekly Activity, 04-Aug-2016
Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the red zone. The Price Index closed at 5,459.26 points, down by 0.03% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.65% after closing at 349.92 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 811.93 points down by 0.80%. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 15.23%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 6.13 million, whereas trading volume average was 54.95 million shares, recording a decrease of 41.72%.
The three stock market indices closed in the red zone amid a sharp and very weak fluctuated performance in light of selling for profit operations, after the gains realized by many stocks during the past couple of weeks. Also, the selling operations concentrated on the leading and operational stocks, especially in the Telecommunication sector, the most losing one among the declining sectors, were reflected on the Weighted and KSX-15 indices in particular, while the speculative trading and the profit collection operations continued in controlling the deals over the small-cap stocks that some of dropped as well, which pushed the Price Index to close in the red zone by the end of the week.
Moreover, the market initiated its first session of the week with a grouped decline for the three main indices, amid a large decrease in the trading levels, especially the liquidity that dropped by more than 40%, to record about K.D. 3.2 million only, the lowest level reached in about 14 years; while the traded stocks volume declined to its lowest level in about five years. On the second session, the market was able to realize a grouped growth for the indices affected by the support received from the positive results disclosed by some listed companies, especially the leading ones, which enhanced the purchasing operations executed on such companies’ stocks and caused the trading activity to increase on both levels, the value and the volume, whereas both increased by more than 100% by the end of the session.
The market returned at the mid-week session to record grouped losses for the three indices once again, where the negative performance was the main trait of the session, amid increased selling operations that concentrated on the leading stocks, while the market was able in the next session to record a grouped increase for the three indices supported by the good performance witnessed by the leading stocks, especially the Banks and Telecommunication sectors, in addition to the collection operations on some small-cap stocks that declined noticeably in the previous period which made it tempting to purchase.
On the last trading session of the week, the market returned to record losses, whereas all its indices closed in the red zone, in light of the profit collection operations that included many stocks of different sectors, with a drop in the value.
By the end of the last week, the market capitalization reached K.D. 23 billion down by 0.41% compared to its level in a week earlier, where it reached K.D. 23.56 billion. However, on an annual level, the market cap for the listed companies in KSE declined by 7.14% from its value at the 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 2.78% annual loss compared to its closing in 2015, while the weighted index decreased by 8.33%, and the KSX-15 recorded 9.83% loss.
Sectors’ Indices
Five of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, six recorded declines, whereas the Health sector’s index closed with no change from the week before. Last week’s highest gainer was the Oil & Gas sector, achieving 2.14% growth rate as its index closed at 778.58 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Consumer Goods sector’s index closed at 1,198.59 points recording 0.42% increase. The Technology sector came in third as its index achieved 0.42% growth, ending the week at 993.73 points.
On the other hand, the Telecommunications sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 1.98% to end the week’s activity at 596.22 points. The Basic Materials sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 0.81%, closing at 952.88 points, followed by the Banks sector, as its index closed at 783.88 points at a loss of 0.68%.
Sectors’ Activity
The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 127.87 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 46.54% of the total market trading volume. The Real Estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 15.78% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 43.35 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 12.21 million or 39.81% 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 6.52 million representing 21.25% of the total market trading value.