Kuwait Stock Exchange’s Weekly Activity, 13-Oct-2016
Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the red zone. The Price Index closed at 5,328.0 points, down by 1.30% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 1.49 % after closing at 346.63 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 803.78 points down by 1.27%. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 55.19%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 5.39 million, whereas trading volume average was 36.65 million shares, recording a decrease of 53.29%.
The three stock market indices continued recording losses for the second consecutive week amid very weak performance, especially on the trading levels, which declined steeply during the last week’s trading, where the total volume recorded 183.26 million stock during the last week, down by 41.61% compared to the earlier week’s trading, while the total value decreased by the end of the week to reach K.D. 26.95 million against K.D. 48.11 million in the week before, down by 43.98%. Such performance comes in light of the refrain of many dealers from trading in the market, waiting for the listed companies to disclose its financial results for the 9 months of 2016, which is expected to be disclosed in the following few days.
As per the daily trading activity, the stock market initiated its first sessions of last week with a drop that included all its indices, especially the Weighted and KSX-15, the most losing indices after recording 0.30% losses for each, amid the selling pressures on few leading stocks especially in the Banks and Telecommunication sectors. However, the speculative operations witnessed by the small-cap stocks continued in putting pressure on the Price Index which declined for the second consecutive session. Also, the stock market moved on with its negative performance on the second session and its three indices continued recording losses and closing in the red zone, amid selling pressures that included some leading and small-cap stocks, which was reflected on the Price Index in particular to break the 5,300 point record down.
On the mid-week session, and despite the declined traded liquidity levels and its decrease by 66% compared to the previous session, reaching its lowest level since around one and one half month; the three stock market indices were able to realize grouped increase supported by the strong and active trading that targeted the small-cap stocks, especially that being traded below 100 fils level per stock, in addition to the random collection operations executed on some idle stocks that are not frequently purchased. In addition, the market returned on Wednesday and Thursday’s sessions to drop once again, amid a noticeable activity of the quick profit collection operations that included some leading and small-cap stocks.
By the end of the last week, the market capitalization for the listed companies in the official market declined by 0.45% compared to its level in a week earlier, where it reached then K.D. 23.39 billion. On the annual level, the contraction in the market cap for the listed companies in the official market increased to reach 7.84% 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 5.11% annual loss compared to its closing in 2015, while the weighted index decreased by 9.19%, and the KSX-15 recorded 10.73% loss.
Sectors’ Indices
Nine of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, while the other three recorded increases. The Insurance sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 4.02% to end the week’s activity at 935.94 points. The Financial Services sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 3.64%, closing at 542.12 points, followed by the Basic Materials sector, as its index closed at 901.01 points at a loss of 2.74%. The Oil & Gas sector was the least declining as its index closed at 748.15 points with a 1.16% decrease.
On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the Industrial sector, achieving 1% growth rate as its index closed at 1,166.14 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Technology sector’s index closed at 974.28 points recording 0.64% increase. The Consumer Services sector came in third as its index achieved 0.54% growth, ending the week at 909.12 points.
Sectors’ Activity
The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 63 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 34.38% of the total market trading volume. The Real Estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 24.12% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 44.20 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 9.67 million or 35.90% 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 4.19 million representing 15.54% of the total market trading value.