KSE gains as oil prices surge – Market capitalisation rises by 1.5% to

13/03/2016 07:43 AST

Equities across the Middle East edged up as Oil prices crossed the $40 mark; further; the Brent crude surged 10.8% compared to last week, currently trading at $40.67 per barrel.

The Weekly volumes reported 993.37 million shares compared to 777.33 million shares in previous week. Among the major contributors the Financial Services Sector (contributing 39.19%) witnessed 389.28 million shares of trading compared to 293.43 million shares in the previous week, while Real Estate Sector (contributing 27.08%) witnessed 269.01 million shares of trading compared to 212.49 million shares in the previous week.

Sectors with notable volumes included the Consumer Services sector, witnessed 32.26 million traded shares with an increase of 152.20% in volumes during the week. Counters like Zima Holding Co (Mcap – KWD 7.60 million) witnessed 29.09 million shares in trading compared with 8.92 million shares the previous week, we believe this is in anticipation of the company announcing annual earnings results for FY15.

The overall Market Cap was up by a 1.5% as it stood at KWD 25.25 billion, the market saw a positive trend in the blue chips during the week. National Bank of Kuwait — NBK (Mcap — KWD 3.83 billion) saw its market cap increase by 2.70%. While Mobile Telecommunication Co — Zain (Mcap — KWD 1.63 billion) saw its market cap go up by 1.33%, and Kuwait Food Co — Americana (Mcap — KWD 1.02 billion) surged 16.36% in market cap wise, we believe in anticipation of selling major shareholders stake to Adeptio LLC Co.

On the total market breadth, Of the 56 Islamic Companies, 30 advanced while 15 declined during the week.

The Islamic universe market cap witnessed a positive week to close at KWD 6.31 billion an increase of 0.89%. The universe heavyweights like Kuwait Finance House — KFH (Mcap — KWD 2.43 billion) remained unchanged during the week. While Boubyan Bank (Mcap — KWD 835.62 million) saw an increase of 1.25% in its market cap. Kuwait Telecommunication Co — VIVA ( Mcap — KWD 509.39 million) saw an increase of 4.08% in its market cap during the week.

Arab Times