Boursa Kuwait ended last week in the green zone. The Price Index closed at 6,309.31 points, up by 0.81% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index increased by 1.33% after closing at 402.96 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 925.96 points up by 1.74%. Furthermore, the week’s average daily turnover decreased by 43.25%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 14.11 million, whereas trading volume average was 79.49 million shares, recording decrease of 34.87%.
The trading activity during the last week showed that the market was able to change its direction towards the green zone and its three indices were able to record grouped gains after three consecutive weeks of losses, supported by the purchasing powers that were present during most of the daily sessions of the week, and were concentrated on some leading stocks, especially after the big drops that the same stocks witnessed lately, in addition to the quick speculations that targeted some small-cap stocks. Also, the negativity was not absent from affecting the market performance during the last week, as some daily sessions witnessed selling and profit collection operations that pushed the three market indices to the red zone, which lightened the weekly gains of the market to a certain extent.
The Boursa realized gains over K.D. 400 million during the last five sessions, whereas its market cap reached K.D. 26.97 billion after being K.D. 26.57 billion in a week earlier, which means that the market succeeded in recording weekly gains of 1.51% to its total market cap, which enhanced its gains since the beginning of the current year to reach 6.14% compared to end of 2016, where it was K.D. 25.41 billion. (Note: The market cap for the listed companies in the official market is calculated based on the average number of outstanding shares as per the latest available official financial statements).
As per the daily trading activity; the first session of the week witnessed a noticeable decrease in the three market indices, affected by the random selling operations that targeted many stocks of different sectors, amid a drop in the trading activity compared to the previous session, especially the cash liquidity, which declined by 28.13% reaching K.D. 13.49 million. In addition, the market was able in the second session to achieve relatively good gains, and its three indices were able to compensate a large part of its losses recorded in the previous session, supported by the return of the purchasing power control over the trading activity once again, amid traders’ concentration on the small-cap stocks.
On the mid-week session, the market witnessed fluctuation on its three indices’ performance, as the Weighted and KSX-15 indices continued recording gains for the second consecutive session, supported by the purchasing operations that targeted some leading stocks, while the Price Index went against the current and ended the session in the red zone, affected by the quick profit collection operations that included some idle stocks.
Moreover; on Wednesday’s session the three market indices were able to record grouped gains supported by the random purchasing and collection operations that included a wide range of stocks of different weights, amid a noticeable increase in the trading activity, especially the cash liquidity that recorded a growth of 106.58% reaching K.D. 23.17 million. The market continued realizing grouped gains for its three indices in the end of week session, which witnessed a fluctuated performance with an upward trend, where it took place as a result to the continued control of the purchasing operations over the trading behavior, amid a large drop in the trading activity during the session, as the traded number of stocks decreased by about 35%, and the trading value decreased by about 60%.
For the annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 9.76% annual gain compared to its closing in 2016, while the Weighted Index increased by 6.02%, and the KSX-15 recorded 4.63% growth.
Sectors’ Indices
Seven of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, three recorded declines, whereas the Health Care & Technology sector’s indexes closed with no change from the week before. Last week’s highest gainer was the Consumer Goods sector, achieving 4.27% growth rate as its index closed at 936.01 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Oil & Gas sector’s index closed at 955.05 points recording 3.11% increase. The Industrial sector came in third as its index achieved 2.51% growth, ending the week at 1,754.41 points.
On the other hand, the Insurance sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 6.10% to end the week’s activity at 984.58 points. The Telecommunications sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 4.68%, closing at 533.40 points, followed by the Real Estate sector, as its index closed at 903.88 points at a loss of 0.19%.
Sectors’ Activity
The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 143.15 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 36.02% of the total market trading volume. The Banks sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 22.80% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 90.60 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 31.83 million or 45.11% 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 11.39 million representing 16.14% of the total market trading value.