Boursa Kuwait ended last week in the red zone. The Price Index closed at 6,654.55 points, down by 0.46% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.61% after closing at 410.30 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 942.42 points down by 0.12%. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 10.74%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 13.62 million, whereas trading volume average was 94.53 million shares, recording a decrease of 15.62%.
The three Boursa indices ended the week’s trading with mixed losses, in parallel with the noticeable declines recorded by the international and regional stock markets during most of the week’s sessions, which came as a result to the strong selling pressures that included many listed stocks in the market, in addition to the continued profit collection operations on the leading stocks, especially after the increases recorded by such stocks on last January. Also, the market witnessed such performance amid decreased trading indicators of both the cash liquidity or the number of traded stocks, whereas the total value reached by the end of the week around K.D. 68.08 million, against K.D. 76.28 million in the previous one, while the volume reached 472.64 million stock by the end of last week, against 560.10 million stock in a week earlier.
In addition, the Boursa recorded during the last week market losses exceeded K.D. 155 million, as the market capitalization reached by the end of the week K.D. 27.54 billion, down by 0.57% of its level in a week earlier, where it was K.D. 27.70 billion, and the market gains since the beginning of the year 2018 contracted to reach about K.D. 602.65 million, with a growth of 2.24% compared to its value on the last trading day of the last year, where it reached then K.D. 26.94 billion.
(Note: The market capitalization for the listed companies in the Regular Market is calculated based on the average number of outstanding shares as per the latest available financial statements).
Moreover, the market initiated its trading in the first session of the week with negative performance affected by the selling operations that included many stocks of different sectors, especially in the Telecommunications sector, the most declining one by the end of the session, which was negatively reflected on the three indices’ performance, especially the KSX-15 Index that lost around 0.33% of its value by the end of the session. The Boursa ended the next session with mixed closings for its three indices, whereas the Price Index was able to compensate its previous session’s losses supported by the purchasing operations that targeted some small-cap stocks especially in the last moments of the session, which witnessed exceptional trading on some idle stocks; while the Weighted and KSX-15 indices ended the session in the red zone affected by the continued profit collection operations that were concentrated on the leading and heavy stocks.
On the mid-week session however, the market returned to record grouped losses for its three indices, affected by the strong selling pressures that included leading and small-cap stocks in light of the fears that over controlled the traders, in light of the negative environment that the GCC and International markets are suffering of.
On Wednesday, the market witnessed a green closing for the three market indices for the first time in the week, as a result to the relative recovery of the international markets, which caused the return of the purchasing operations to appear and included many stocks of different sectors, especially in the Real Estate and Financial Services sectors. The market returned to fluctuate on the end of week session, as the Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to compensate some losses by realizing limited gains by the end of the session, while the Price Index returned to the red zone again, to increase its losses on the weekly level.
For the annual performance, the Price Index ended last week recording 3.85% annual gain compared to its closing in 2017, while the Weighted Index increased by 2.21%, and the KSX-15 recorded 3.01% growth.
Sectors’ Indices
Six of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, five recorded increases, whereas the Health Care sector’s index closed with no change from the week before. The Telecommunications sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 5.11% to end the week’s activity at 547.75 points. The Financial Services sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 1.86%, closing at 631.58 points, followed by the Oil & Gas sector, as its index closed at 966.43 points at a loss of 1.48%. The Banks sector was the least declining as its index closed at 950.42 points with a 1.01% decrease.
On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the Technology sector, achieving 7.16% growth rate as its index closed at 507.60 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Basic Materials sector’s index closed at 1,318.53 points recording 1.84% increase. The Real Estate sector came in third as its index achieved 1.63% growth, ending the week at 1,079.04 points.
Sectors’ Activity
The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 152.09 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 32.18% of the total market trading volume. The Banks sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 30.48% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 144.08 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 35.88 million or 52.70% 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 9.05 million representing 13.30% of the total market trading value.