Boursa Kuwait ended last week in the green zone. The Price Index closed at 6,560.63 points, up by 1.65% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index increased by 1.65% after closing at 415.80 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 958.66 points up by 2.33%. Furthermore, the week’s average daily turnover decreased by 14.84%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 12.93 million, whereas trading volume average was 104.50 million shares, recording a decrease of 3.46%.
The Boursa continued its outstanding performance that it initiated the new year with, and was able to realize relatively good increases for the second consecutive week, supported by the noticeable purchasing activity on many listed stocks headed by the leading and heavy ones, to over perform the profit collection operations that were present during some daily sessions of the week, and could not drag the market indices to the red zone, however lightened its weekly gains slightly.
The Boursa recorded market gains of around K.D. 450 million due to the good performance it witnessed during the last week, whereas the total market capitalization for the listed companies in the Regular Market reached about K.D. 27.89 billion, against K.D. 27.44 billion in the previous week, up by 1.64%. The market capitalization gains since the beginning of the new year reached more than K.D. 950 billion, with a growth of 3.53% compared to its value at last trading day of the previous year, where it was K.D. 26.94 billion.(Note: The market cap for the listed companies in the Regular Market is calculated based on the average number of the outstanding shares as per the latest available official financial statements).
Moreover, the Kuwaiti Market gains appears in light of the watch state of the most investors for the listed companies results for the financial year 2017, especially the Banks’ results, expected to start flowing in the few coming weeks, which pushed many traders to execute heavy purchasing operations on some Banks’ stocks, and lead to have the Banks sector the biggest portion of the cash liquidity traded during the last week.
Furthermore, the Boursa started its first session of the week with good increases to its three indices, affected by the strong purchasing operations that included many listed stocks in the market of both leading and small-cap ones, despite the decreased trading activity of the cash liquidity or the number of traded stocks, as the trading value dropped by the end of the session by 14% approximately, while the volume declined by about 12%. The second session of the week witnessed profit collection operations included some stocks of different increases in the previous sessions, which pushed the three indices to meet in the red closing area, amid a continued decline in the trading indicators on both levels, the cash liquidity or the traded volume.
The Market was able in the mid-week session to return to the green zone once again, as its indices ended the session with a grouped increase supported by the increased purchasing operations on the leading stocks in particular, in addition to the quick speculative operations that concentrated on some small-cap stocks, which came amid a continued drop in the cash liquidity and the volume for the third consecutive session.
Wednesday’s and Thursday’s sessions witnessed an overtaking by the green colour on the trading activity in the Boursa, which was apparent on its three indices’ performance and clearly enhanced its gains , to end the week’s trading with good gains compared to the previous week’s closing.
On the other hand, last week witnessed a price increase of 87 stock out of 157 listed stock in the Regular Market, compared to the previous week, while 47 stocks dropped , and 23 stock remained with no change.
Sectors’ Indices
Nine of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, two recorded declines, whereas the Health Care sector’s index closed with no change from the week before. Last week’s highest gainer was the Technology sector, achieving 5.26% growth rate as its index closed at 495.83 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Real Estate sector’s index closed at 977.14 points recording 3.58% increase. The Financial Services sector came in third as its index achieved 2.81% growth, ending the week at 640.06 points.
On the other hand, the Insurance sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 6.16% to end the week’s activity at 1,026.19 points. The Consumer Goods sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 4%, closing at 817.27 points.
Sectors’ Activity
The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 170.92 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 32.71% of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 32.13% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 167.86 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 27.87 million or 43.12% 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 13.22 million representing 20.46% of the total market trading value.