Boursa Kuwait ended last week with mixed performance. The Price Index closed at 6,685.23 points, up by 0.50% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 1.35% after closing at 412.82 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 943.58 points down by 2.28%.Furthermore, the week’s average daily turnover increased by 11.68%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 15.26 million, whereas trading volume average was 112.02 million shares, recording a decrease of 5.70%.
The three market indices witnessed fluctuation and closed mixed at the end of last week, whereas the Price Index was able to realize weekly gains of 0.50% and continue its upward direction that it started the new year with, where it received support from the concentration of the purchasing operations over the small-cap stocks of low price values, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices could not reverse its downward directions, and declined for the second consecutive week amid a continued control of the profit collection operations over the leading stocks, and the trend of some traders to execute partial selling operations on some stocks in the Banks sector.
Also, the Boursa recorded during the last week market losses of more than K.D. 355 million, as its market capitalization reached by the end of the week K.D. 27.70 billion, down by 1.27% of its level in a week earlier, where it was K.D. 28.05 billion, and the market gains since the beginning of year 2018 contracted to reach around K.D. 760 billion, and up by 2.82% compared to its value at the last trading day of the previous year, where it reached then K.D. 26.94 billion. (Note: The market capitalization for the listed companies in the Primary Market is calculated based on the average number of outstanding shares as per the latest available official financial statements).
Boursa Kuwait initiated the first session of the week with a drop in all its indices, especially the Weighted and KSX-15 indices that were affected by the continued selling pressures and the profit collection operations that concentrated on the leading stocks, while the return of the quick speculative operations that targeted some small-cap stocks had also a negative impact on the Price Index performance, however was limited. In addition, the next session witnessed a fluctuation in the three indices performance affected by the different preference of the traders, whereas the Price Index was able to end the session’s trading in the green zone benefiting from the return of the purchasing operations on the small-cap stocks once again, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices continued its decline due to the continued selling pressures that have been targeting the leading stocks during this period.
On the mid-week session, all the market indices ended the session with different increases, affected by the losses recorded by many stocks being traded on during the session, of both leading and small-cap stocks, especially in the Oil & Gas and Consumer Services sectors.
The market returned on the last two sessions of the week to fluctuate once again, amid an absence of new motivators that could push the traders to change their investment policies for the current time, especially while waiting for the listed companies’ results for the financial year 2017, to end the week’s trading with mixed closings for the three indices, for the second consecutive week.
For the annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 4.33% annual gain compared to its closing in 2017, while the Weighted Index increased by 2.84%, and the KSX-15 recorded 3.14% growth.
Sectors’ Indices
Six of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other six recorded declines. Last week’s highest gainer was the Health Care sector, achieving 6.87% growth rate as its index closed at 1,550.87 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Real Estate sector’s index closed at 1,061.78 points recording 5.02% increase. The Consumer Goods sector came in third as its index achieved 0.90% growth, ending the week at 816.51 points.
On the other hand, the Consumer Services sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 4.46% to end the week’s activity at 894.75 points. The Technology sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 3%, closing at 473.70 points, followed by the Financial Services sector, as its index closed at 643.57 points at a loss of 1.02%.
Sectors’ Activity
The Banks sector dominated a total trade volume of around 181.12 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 32.34% of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 25.51% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 142.86 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 39.47 million or 51.74% 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 12.05 million representing 15.80% of the total market trading value.