Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week with mixed performance The Price Index closed at 6,396.96 points, up by 0.31% from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.83% after closing at 431.45 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 1,043.49 points down by 1.53%. Furthermore, last week's average daily turnover decreased by 11.13%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 17.84 million, whereas trading volume average was 238.33 million shares, recording an decrease of 22.62%.
The Price Index realized limited growth supported by the speculative operations that marked the week's trading activity and mainly concentrated on the small-cap stocks, whilst the Weighted and KSX-15 Indices could not realize gains, affected by the profit collection operations executed on a number of the large-cap and operational listed stocks.
The quick speculative and profit collection operations controlled most of the traded stocks activity during the first session of the week, which caused the three indices to close mixed, whereas the Price and Weighted Indices closed in the green zone, while the KSX-15 Index went against the current and recorded some losses by the end of the session. On the next two sessions, the three indices could not increase affected by the selling pressures and the quick profit collection operations that targeted many large-cap and small-cap stocks together, which caused the Price Index to lose some of its earlier realized gains, and added to the other indices' losses.
Also, the stock market was able to record good gains to all its indices during Wednesday's session, supported by the continued active speculative operations, which concentrated on the small-cap stocks in particular, in addition to the random purchasing operations that targeted some blue-chip stocks, which enhanced the Price Index's gains, and contributed to limiting the Weighted and KSX-15 Indices' losses. By the end of week session, the stock market witnessed a relatively steep decline to its three indices, especially the Price Index, which declined the most, and caused it to lose most of its gains realized in the previous sessions, as a result to the strong selling trend that included many stocks, among a decreased trading activity, on both the liquidity or the volume levels.
On the other hand, the delay of many listed companies in disclosing its first quarter financial data had a negative impact on the stock market, as despite the fact that the legal disclosure period given for the companies is about to end mid of the current month; the number of companies that announced its financial results reached only 58 company by the end of last Thursday, representing 30.37% of the total listed 191 company. The total profits recorded by such companies reached K.D. 284.58 million, increasing by 5.41% from the same companies' profits for the same period of last year, as it reached then K.D. 269.96 million.
Moreover, the market cap reached K.D. 28.39 billion by the end of last week, decreasing by 0.87% compared to its level of the preceding week, where it reached K.D. 28.64 billion. For the annual performance; the market cap of the listed companies increased by 1.48% from its value at 2014 year end, where it was K.D. 27.98 billion.
As far as KSE annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 2.12% annual loss compared to its closing in 2014, while the weighted index decreased by 1.69%, and the KSX-15 recorded 1.55% loss.
Sectors' Indices
Eight of KSE's sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other four recorded declines. Last week's highest gainer was the insurance sector, achieving 1.79% growth rate as its index closed at 1,118.65 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Basic Materials sector's index closed at 1,109.49 points recording 1.37% increase. The Health Care sector came in third as its index achieved 0.91% growth, ending the week at 854.39 points.
On the other hand, the Technology sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 2.51% to end the week's activity at 914.93 points. The Telecommunications sector was second on the losers' list, which index declined by 1.54%, closing at 630.38 points, followed by the Consumer Services sector, as its index closed at 1,012.26 points at a loss of 1.14%.
Sectors' Activity
The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 467.43 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 39.23% of the total market trading volume. The Real Estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector's traded shares were 27.85% of last week's total trading volume, with a total of around 331.91 million shares.
On the other hand, the Financial Services sector's stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around K.D 27.75 million or 31.10% of last week's total market trading value. The Real Estate sector took the second place as the sector's last week turnover was approx. K.D 17.26 million representing 19.34% of the total market trading value.
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© Arab Times 2015
