Kuwait bourse extends loss in volatile session–UPAC dives 100;NBK flat

04/05/2017 05:16 AST

Kuwait stocks pulled lower on Tuesday as it extended its losses to third consecutive day. The bourse dropped 33.66 pts in volatile trade to 6,759.4 pts even as weakening oil prices weighed on the sentiment. The banks and other heavyweights however closed mixed.

The KSX 15 gauge inched 0.42 pts higher to 913.18 points while weighted index eased 0.33 pts to 405.02 points. The volume turnover meanwhile receded further to hit a fresh multi-month low. 109.4 million shares changed hands — a 5.7 pct drop from Monday.

The sectors closed mostly in the red. Technology outshone the rest with 1.73 pct gain whereas oil and gas shed 1.73 percent, the worst performer of the day. In terms of volume, financial services notched the highest market share of 43.05 pct while real estate trailed with 24.12 percent contribution.

Among the losers, Tamdeen Real Estate Co shed 25 fils to close at 400 fils with razor thin trading volume while Mabanee Co was down 10 fils at 810 fils erasing Monday’s gains. UPAC plunged 100 fils to 660 fils.

Zain slipped 10 fils to 435 fils after trading 4.3 million shares and Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) recouped last session’s drop with a 10 fils rise to 840 fils. Agility stood pat at 630 fils off early lows.

Ooredoo was unchanged at KD 1.200. The company has posted 26.6 pct jump in profits during the first quarter of 2017 to KD 12.93 million from KD 10.21m in same period last year.

The market opened weak and moved sideways in early trade. The main index see sawed briefly to scale the day’s highest level of 6,805.06 pts almost half way into the session and headed south thereafter as sentiment turned sour. It troughed at 6,748.33 pts before clawing back some of the losses at close.

Top gainer of the day, Gulf Finance Co jumped 6.67 pct to 64 fils and QIC climbed 6.02 percent to stand next. UPAC tumbled 13.16 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Aayan topped the volume with 17.8 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s downswing, the losers vastly outnumbered the winners. 27 stocks advanced whereas 59 closed lower. Of the 127 counters active on Tuesday, 41 closed flat. 2,734 deals worth KD 12.4 million were transacted — a 9.3 pct rise in value from the day before.

National Industries Group took in 2 fils to settle at 120 fils and Gulf Cable was unchanged at 440 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co gave up 2 fils and Contracting and Marine Services Co inched 1 fil into green.

Kuwait Foundry Co fell 5 fils to 305 fils and NAPESCO slid 40 fils. The company’s Q1 profit surged 62.7% year-on-year to KD 2.31 million as to compared to KWD 1.42 million in same period last year. It had earned KD 7.71 million in 2016, up 35.6% from 2015.

Slipped

Kuwait Portland Cement slipped 10 fils ton 960 fils and Shuaiba Paper Industries Co rose 10 fils to 310 fils. ACICO Industries and NICBM were flat at 290 fils and 204 fils respectively while NCCI added 4 fils.

Equipment Holding Co was unchanged at 60 fils and Automated Systems Co dipped 13 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co held ground at 570 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co gained 5 fils. Educational Holding Co was up 10 fils at 300 fils.

Humansoft Holding climbed 20 fils to KD 3.860 while Nafais and Combined Group Contracting Co dropped 10 fils each to close at 140 fils and 560 fils respectively. Burgan Well Drilling Co closed 1 fil higher.

Independent Petroleum Group fell 10 fils to 390 fils and OSOS was up 6 fils at 136 fils. AWJ Holding dialed up 2 fils to close at 84 fils and Kuwait Gulf Link Transport Co clipped 2 fils. Yiaco Medical stood pat at 200 fils.

In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House rose 5 fils to 500 fils and National Bank of Kuwait stood pat at 680 fils with a volume of 1.5 mln. The bank has posted a net profit of KD 85.4 million in the first quarter of 2017 as again

Arab Times