Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) continued its downward trend for the third consecutive week reaching its lowest level since May 25. The down move is fueled by investors fear regarding the third quarter results which are still showing losses specially seen across the troubled financial sector causing a wide sell-off spree this week.

A retreat was witnessed on the large capitalization stocks which added to the index loss. As measured by Globals weighted General Index, the KSE was down by 5.59% percent at the end of the week and closed at 203.70 points. For the month of October 2009, huge loss were seen in the Kuwaiti stock market reaching 7.19 percent while on a year-to-date basis, the index is down by 1.32 percent. Also, Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) price index was down for the week, dropping by 260.40 points (3.42 percent) to close a t 7,347.50 points. The market capitalization reached KD32.96bn. Market breadth was highly skewed towards decliners this week as out of 162 shares traded, 120 shares retreated, against only 20 stocks that closed at higher prices.

Trading activity was higher as investors pulled out of the market as increase in selling orders was seen across the Kuwaiti market sectors. Total trading volume on the exchange was up by 53.55 percent, with 1.44bn shares changing hands at a total value of KD275.57mn (an increase of 53.91 percent from last weeks value). High volume was seen in the Investment sector, accounting for 41.29 percent of the total traded volume this week with 593.88mn shares traded. However, the most traded stock was in the Real Estate sector with Kuwait Real Estate Company being the most traded stock for the week with 118.92mn shares traded accounting for 8.27 percent of the total traded volume. The scrip ended the week down by 6.82 percent at KD0.082. In terms of value traded, the Investment sector took the lead as well, with a total traded value of KD80.29mn, accounting for 29.13 percent of the total market traded value. Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) was the value leader with a total traded value of KD26.16mn. The scrip cl osed at KD0.485, which is 2.02 percent lower from last weeks closing.

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