Kuwait bourse extends rally, volume soars

27/04/2013 08:04 AST

Kuwait stocks extended the winning spree to fifth consecutive session with hefty gains on Thursday. The index vaulted 60.34 points in volatile trading to 7287.67 pts, the highest level since first week of November 2009. The sentiment was markedly bullish amid brisk speculative buying some of the mid and low caps even as the blue chips remained largely subdued. The KSX 15 benchmark rose 1.81 pts to touch a fresh high of 1071.37 points and is up over 31 pts from start of the month while weighted index edged 1.45 pts higher to 451.97 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile surged a whopping 65 percent to 1043.37 million — a multi-month high.

All sectors closed higher except parallel market. Consumer goods outperformed the peers with 2.13 percent rally while oil and gas came in next with 1.94 percent rise. Volume-wise, real estate accounted for the highest market share of 41.20 percent and financial services followed with 34.19 percent contribution.

Kuwait Food Co (Americana) rallied 40 fils to KD 1.960 more than recouping the loss in the previous session and Independent Petroleum Group climbed 20 fils. Aref Energy Holding Co rose 10 fils to KD 0.130 on back of over 5 million shares and Kuwait United Poultry Co followed suit.

Kuwait Foundry Co gained 5 fils and ACICO Industries was up 4 fils at KD 0.230 recovering the loss on Wednesday. National Industries Group ticked 2 fils higher on back of 4.23 million shares. The stock has gained 14 fils so far during the month while year-to-date, it has soared 26 fils.

Bourse heavyweight Zain held the ground unchanged at KD 0.740 after swaying narrowly in both direction and Wataniya Telecom followed suit to end at KD 2.180. The telco logged a net profit of KD 19.5 million in the January-March quarter, a 31 percent dropping from KD 28.3 million in 2012 Q1.

Rose
Agility rose 10 fils to KD 0.650 after trading in red earlier in the session. The company has obtained the approval of Capital Markets Authority earlier in the month to buy back or sell up to a maximum of 10% of its shares for 6 months.

The market opened firm and rose steadily in early session. The index retreated on brief profit taking bout and clawed back to peak at 7305.39 points in the final hour amid heavy buying in select scrips. It swung slightly lower in the final minutes but still managed to close with strong gains.

Top gainers of the day, Gulf Investment House spiked 8.47 percent and First Dubai too was up by same measure. Amwal tumbled over 9 percent, the steepest decliner of the day, and Abyaar topped the volume with 95.32 million shares.

Reflecting the day’s gains, the winners vastly outled the losers. 70 stocks advanced whereas 34 closed lower. Of the 145 counters active on Thursday, 41 closed flat. 14,526 deals worth KD 115.52 million were transacted — a 103.94 percent surge in value from the day before.

“It’s pure speculation — everyone is positive on the market and there are huge volumes coming in,” Reuters quoted a Kuwait fund manager who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“Retail investors are borrowing from banks to fund market speculation, boosting volumes. They are willing to take on greater risk and put more money into small caps - these stocks were undervalued at the start of the year but are looking over-priced,” he added .

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Arab Times