Kuwait stock market ends week trading on mixed board

The Kuwait Stock Exchange ended last week's trading with variance on its indices, a specialized economic report showed Saturday. "The price index ended last week with an increase amounted to 2.31 percent, while the weighted index increased by 0.32 percent compared to the closings of the week before, whereas KSX-15 Index decreased by 0.50 percent," reads the report by Bayan Investment Company. "Furthermore, last week's average daily turnover increased by 10.94 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 110.83 million, whereas trading volume average was 1.01 billion shares, recording decrease of 7.06 percent." Bayan report noted that the price index continued its gains and reached some levels, that did not approach in a long while, supported by the continued purchasing operations on small-cap stocks, and the positive speculations on a large number of it, therefore the index improved to close at its highest since October 2009. "On the contrary, the large-cap stocks witnessed a declining unstable performance last week, due to the selling pressures in some sessions, which limited the Weighted Index gains and dragged KSX-15 to a limited loss by the end of the week." Moreover, the report said that most of the market purchasing operations during this period are executed on small-cap stocks, especially in real estate and financial services sectors, which are considered having the most trading value among all other sectors. On the other hand, the market witnessed last week a relative profit collection operations, which is considered natural and logic especially after the big gains realized by many stocks since the beginning of the current year, with focus on small-cap stocks, and caused the Price Index to increase noticeably. "As a result, a corrective action is necessary for the stocks to establish at price levels that enable the price index from aiming at the 8,000 point level, which is expected to be reached soon in light of the positive expectations for the listed companies first quarter financial results," reads the report. For the annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 30.93 percent annual gain compared to its closing in 2012, while the weighted index increased by 10.67 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 7.57 percent increase. "By the end of the week, the price index closed at 7,769.46 points, up by 2. 31 percent from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 0.32 percent weekly gain after closing at 462.20 points. Moreover, the KSX-15 index closed at 1,085.44 points, decreasing with 0.50 percent," added the report. With regard to the performance of the different sectors on the market, the report disclosed that ten of KSE's sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other two recorded declines. "Last week's highest gainer was the insurance sector, achieving 8.52 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,146.04 points. Whereas, in the second place, the health care sector's index closed at 1,107.32 points recording 4.28 percent increase. The basic materials sector came in third as its index achieved 3.15 percent growth, ending the week at 1,190.20 points. The Oil Gas sector was the least growing as its index closed at 1,243.44 points with a 0.25 percent increase." "On the other hand, the telecommunications sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 1.59 percent to end the week's activity at 929.20 points. The Technology sector was second on the losers' list, which index declined by 0.87 percent, closing at 1,168.72 points." The report also showed that the financial services sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 1.98 billion shares changing hands, representing 38.94 percent of the total market trading volume. The real estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector's traded shares were 33.37 percent of last week's total trading volume, with a total of 1.69 billion shares. Meanwhile, the report unveiled that the banks sector's stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of K.D. 161.19 million or 29. 09 percent of last week's total market trading value. The real estate sector took the second place as the sector's last week turnover of K.D. 151.43 million represented 27.33 percent of the total market trading value.