Kuwait Stock Exchange’s Weekly Activity, 03-Sep-2015
The three stock indicators recorded losses as a result to the continued heavy selling operations executed by the investors under the influence of the panic state that affected them due to the continued decline of the oil prices and the international markets, and many factors joined to continue the pressure on the trading activity during the last week, such as the effect of the increased trend of the optional withdrawal of few companies from KSE on the trading values and the market cap, also the continued affect of the financial crisis of China, which still laying its negative shades on the international and GCC financial markets, in addition to the lack of the positive news or motivators to push the trading up, which caused the weakness in the pumped liquidity to the market. In addition, the stock market recorded its losses affected by the strong selling pressures that the daily sessions were characterized with, as many stocks that were not traded during the week declined due to the profit collection and liquidation operations it witnessed, especially after the increases the market realized in the first session of the last week, and the last session of the week before.Moreover, the stock market initiated its first session of the week with increases to the three indices, among a continued purchasing activity from the previous session, which included many leading and small-cap stocks in light of the dropped prices to a tempting purchasing levels, and the market witnessed such performance despite the relatively declined trading activity. However on the next session, the market could not continue its positive performance that it witnessed on Sunday’s session to record a grouped decline to the three indices among heavy selling pressures concentrated on the large-cap and heavy stocks, in light of the continued decline in the trading activity.
On Tuesdays’ session, the market witnessed a mixed closing to the three indices, whereas the Price Index continued in declining affected by the continued decrease in some small-cap stocks’ prices, whilst the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to reverse its direction up due to the purchasing power which was present during the session, and concentrated on some leading stocks, among a noticeable drop in the trading activity. On Wednesday’s session, the Price Index continued its downward direction, followed by the Weighted and KSX-15 indices, as a result to the strong selling pressures executed on small-cap stocks and the profit collection operations on some leading stocks of previous gains, whereas the trading activity recorded a noticeable decline and the liquidity dropped by 33.89%, to reach its lowest level in around a month. On the end of the week session, the stock market witnessed a mixed closing for the three indices, as the Price Index continued its decline affected by the selling operations that concentrated on the small-cap stocks, while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to realize limited gain supported by the random purchasing operations on some heavy stocks. The market witnessed such performance in light of the increased trading activity especially the volume which grew by 44.78%.
On the other hand, the market cap for KSE reached by the end of last week K.D. 25.77 billion, declining by 1.32% compared to its level in a week before, which was K.D. 26.11 billion, however on the annual level, the market cap loss recorded by the listed companies in KSE during the last week increased by 7.91% compared to its value at end of 2014, where it reached then K.D. 27.98 billion.
As far as KSE annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 11.90% annual loss compared to its closing in 2014, while the Weighted Index decreased by 12.16%, and the KSX-15 recorded 12.79% loss.
Sectors’ Indices
Three of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, nine recorded declines. Last week’s highest gainer was the Health Care sector, achieving 0.99% growth rate as its index closed at 1,029.95 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Consumer Goods sector’s index closed at 1,167.08 points recording 0.12% increase. Followed by Banks sector’s index closed at 911.31 points recording 0.11% increase.
On the other hand, the Oil & Gas sector headed the losers list as its index declined 5.12% to end the week’s activity at 802.89 points. The Financial Services sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 4 %, closing at 642.21 points, followed by the Telecommunications sector, as its index closed at 552.68 points at a loss of 3.23%.
Sectors’ Activity
The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 271.17 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 38.23% of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 26.17% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 185.66 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 17.69 million or 27.54% of last week’s total market trading value. The Real Estate sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was approx. K.D 11.02 million representing 17.16% of the total market trading value.