Kuwait little changed as Zain extends gains – NBK rallies 11 fils;

Jazeera Airways drops

15/08/2017 07:02 AST

Kuwait stocks trod water on Sunday as it opened the week on a divergent note. The bourse inched 1.1 pts up in volatile session to 6,846.11 points even as Zain and National Bank of Kuwait saw strong buying interest. The broader trend however was largely mixed.

The KSX 15 benchmark climbed 5.99 pts to 966.56 points taking the month’s gains to 23 pts while weighted index added 2.58 points. The volume turnover meanwhile ticked up for the second consecutive session. Over 74 million shares changed hands — up 3.5 pct from Thursday.

The sectors closed mostly in the red turf. Insurance outshone the rest with 2 pct gain whereas technology tumbled 4.92 percent, the worst performer of the day. In terms of volume, financial services notched the highest market share of 40.8 percent and banks followed with 18.89 pct contribution.

Among the prime movers, National Bank of Kuwait rallied 11 fils on back of 3.5 million shares and investment conglomerate KIPCO was up 3 fils at 374 fils. Gulf Insurance Co vaulted 50 fils extending Thursday’s gains and Kuwait Insurance Co climbed 21 fils to 260 fils.

Zain continued its winning spree with a 15 fils gain on a volume of over 10 million and Ooredoo stood pat at KD 1.160 with thin trading. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) rose 4 fils to 809 fils and Agility took in 2 fils.

Kuwait Finance House gained 5 fils on back of 2.9 million shares and Gulf Bank closed flat. The bank has registered a 12.3 pct rise in the second quarter profits to KD 13.4 million from same period last year.

The market opened on a tame note and edged up in early trade. The main index headed south thereafter as sentiment weakened and bottomed at 6,805.98 points past the mid-session. It moved sideways before rebounding sharply amid brisk buying in select counters and managed to close in the green zone.

Top gainer of the day, Gulf Finance Co soared 13.4 pct to 74.9 fils while NCCI climbed 12.5 pct to stand next. Ras Al Khaimah Cement slid 10.11 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Zain topped the volume with 10.14 million shares.

Despite the day’s flat ending, the winners outnumbered the losers. 57 stocks advanced whereas 40 closed lower. Of the 124 counters active on Sunday, 27 closed flat. 3538 deals worth KD 16.46 million were transacted — a 15.2 pct drop in value from the day before.

National Industries Group rose 3 fils on back of 2.4 million shares and Gulf Cable eased 1 fil at 487 fils. Kuwait Cement Co was up 5 fils at 425 fils while Kuwait Portland Cement gave up 5 fils partly paring last session’s gains.

ACICO Industries and NICBM was unchanged at 260 fils and 179 fils respectively whereas Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co dialed up 2 fils. Equipment Holding Co fell 1.4 fils to 46.1 fils.

Surged

Jazeera Airways dropped 7 fils to 580 fils and ALAFCO climbed 7 fils. The company’s earnings surged 49 pct to KD 5.78 million in third quarter ended June 30 from same period last year.

NAPESCO was flat at 900 fils while Human Soft Holding gained 12 fils. The company has recorded a 19.9 pct rise in second quarter profits to KD 6.03 million from Q2 of 2016. In the first half, the earnings rose 17.3 percent to KD 13.17 million.

Automated Systems Co dipped 10 fils to 170 fils while Educational Holding Group and Boubyan Petrochemical trimmed 1 fil each to close at 359 fils and 570 fils respectively. Eyas For Higher and Technical Education was up 5 fils at 850 fils.

Burgan Well Drilling Co and Mezzan Holding gave up 5 fils each while AWJ Holding fell 3 fils to 77 fils. Al Rai Media Group held ground at 120 fils and OSOS was down 6 fils at 122 fils.

In the banking sector, Burgan Bank was unchanged at 366 fils and AlMutahed too did not budge from its earlier close of 412 fils. Commercial Bank of Kuwait and Al Ahli Bank were not traded during t

Arab Times