KSE price index up 3.75 percent – Upbeat trend witnessed during the wk

07/02/2016 08:04 AST

The KSE indices all continued to witness a positive trend, after a long interval of negative closings, amid many counters reporting positive earnings throughout the week. The KSE Price Index saw a increase of 3.75% to close at 5,198.37, as well the KSX-15 closed at 848.55 up by 3.81%. The MUDX Islamic Index closed at 505.47 a jump of 2.56%. The Brent Crude Oil closed at $35.02 a gain of 2.84% on a weekly basis.

The Weekly volumes reported 919.91 million shares compared to 832.89 million shares in previous week. Among the major contributors the Financial Services Sector (contributing 33.23%) witnessed 305.65 million shares of trading compared to 258.77 million shares in the previous week, while Real Estate Sector (contributing 28.43%) witnessed 261.52 million shares of trading compared to 263.99 million shares in the previous week.

Sectors with notable volumes included the Telecommunication sector, with a gain of 145.19% during the week. Counters like Mobile Telecommunication Co – Zain (Mcap – KWD 1.57 billion) witnessed 22.20 million shares in trading compared with 6.14 million shares the previous week, which we believe is in anticipation of likely earnings announcements.

The overall Market Cap was up by an 3.6% as it stood at KWD 24.49 billion as the market saw an upward trend in the blue chips that were the main factor. National Bank of Kuwait – NBK (Mcap – KWD 3.62 billion) saw its market cap increase by 2.68%. While Mobile Telecommunication Co – Zain (Mcap – KWD 1.57 billion) also saw its market cap go up by 5.86% during the week. Kuwait Food Co. – Americana (Mcap – KWD 804.00 million) saw it market surge by 13.64% after reports that a Gulf-based group signed an initial agreement to buy the controlling stake of the company.

The current outstanding shares for Americana are 402 million shares as per current shareholding pattern Al Khair Holding Co. stake is 66.8% while the remaining 33.2% is publicly held; thus Al Khair holding is 268.53 million shares. The current price for American is KWD 2 which results in a value of KWD 537.07 million (USD 1.78 billion) On the total market breadth, Of the 56 Islamic Companies, 39 advanced while 8 declined during the week.

The Islamic universe market cap witnessed a positive week to close at KWD 6.15 billion an increase of 3.03%. The universe heavyweights like Kuwait Finance House – KFH (Mcap – KWD 2.38 billion) saw an increase of 5.26% in its market cap. While Boubyan Bank (Mcap – KWD 825.30 million) witnessed an increase of 1.28% in its market cap. Warba Bank (Mcap – KWD 188.00 million) saw its market cap grow by 14.63%.

Arab Times