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KSE index posts modest rise led by NBK, Commercial Bank

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait Stock Exchange posted modest rise on Wednesday helped by gains in banking scrips. The market rose 15.6 points to touch a fresh high paced by NBK and Commercial Bank of Kuwait. NBK rallied 40 fils whereas CBK rose 60 fils. The market tone was mixed as profit taking in the frontline stocks offset the gains in other positions.

Blue chips mostly sagged on profit booking. Zain tumbled 100 fils, the maximum permissible single day fall while NIG closed flat. Agility shed 40 fils extending its losing streak. KSE index edged 0.1 percent up in a volatile session to wind up at 14,233.8 points amid a dip in volume turnover. Investment Dar rallied 40 fils while sector pivotal KIPCO notched 20 fils.

Notable among losers, Global Investment House shed 40 fils and Kuwait Finance House dropped 20 fils paring the gains in the earlier session. The benchmark, which has been closing at fresh highs in the past three-days, is up 13.8 percent this year, the second best performer in the region.

Sectoral indices moved marginally in both directions. Banking sector rallied 1.2 percent aided by NBK and Kuwait Fiaince House while investment sector edged 0.2 percent up on back of KIPCO and Investment Dar. The two sectors makes for the majority of shares traded in the bourse.

Real estate fell 0.2 percent and industrials lost 0.4 percent pulled by Kuwait Portland Cement Co and MENA Holding Co. Services sector shed 0.4 percent weighed by sharp drop in Zain and Agility.

In the bourse related news, Bayan Investment has clocked profit of KD 7.2 million in 2007 with earnings per share of 22 fils. The company is planning to disburse 10 percent cash dividend and 10 percent bonus share ( 10 shares for every 100 shares held), a local newspaper said. Gulf Investment House has posted a net profit of KD 14.6 million in 2007. The firm has set up Mijan Reconstruction Co in Oman with a capital of KD 25 million.

Noor Financial Investment Company is in negotiation with one of the five banks which qualified for the due diligence study to acquire a 67 percent stake in Banque du Caire. The five banks are UK based Standard Chartered Plc, Saudi Arabia's Samba Financial Group, National Bank of Greece SA, Dubai's Mashreq bank and a consortium of Jordan based Arab Bank Group and Saudi Arabia's Arab National Bank.

The volume of shares dipped by over one-quarter of its previous mark to 353.1 million as investors refrained from taking up fresh positions in absence of fresh cues. The market liquidity had been fairly robust during the month, indicating a slightly bullish undercurrent.

Banking sector dropped 29 percent while investment sector tapered 7 percent. Real estate by over one-fourth of its earlier level and industrials fell 14.4 percent volume wise. Services shrank 40 percent as most of the blue chips traded thin.

Ayaan Leasing Co has declared a 20 percent cash dividend and 25 percent in bonus shares for the year 2007, according the bourse website. Enmaa Real Estate has said that it has posted KD 3 million in last quarter of 2007. Kuwait Gulf Links has won a contract worth KD 4.67 and another one worth KD 2.29 million for services at an oil refinery and its affiliated company.

The shareholders in Kuwait Mobile Telecommunication Co (Zain) gave their approval on Monday to a 125 percent increase in the company's capital to fund future global expansion. The telecom company will raise about KD 1.2 billion ($ 4.4 billion) by selling 1.42 billion shares to its current shareholders at KD 0.85 ($ 3.1) per share. Zain had earlier said that it is interested in buying Syria's largest mobile service provider Syriatel , and also had indicated that it does not expect any significant increase in net profit this year.

Caution
The market opened on a flat note as investors toed caution in early trading. It however climbed slightly up thereafter to touch a high of 14,269 points but could not hold on to the gains as profit booking dragged some of the frontline stocks. The index fell below the red past mid session and hit the day's low of 14,181.8 points before recovering in the final minutes.

The market performance in the month of February had been impressive. It posted a gain of 3.6 percent in the month after recording a 8.4 percent jump in January. The biggest gainers of the month were Gulf Rocks Company (44.3 percent), Transport and Warehousing Group (40 percent). Corporate earnings has been generally encouraging. "We believe market will continue its good growth in the coming days as investors takes new positions encouraged by rise in profitability," Global Investment House had said in its monthly analysis.

The market breadth was biased towards the losers. 39 stocks advanced while 53 closed lower. Of the 149 counters active on Wednesday, 57 closed flat. 9743 deals worth KD 195.6 million were transacted during the day, down 28.3 percent in value over previous day.

Top percentage gainer, Shua Capital vaulted 8.9 percent to KD 0.610 and Salbookh jumped 7.1 percent to stand next. Kuwait Bahrain International Exchange tumbled 8.3 percent, the steepest decliner of the day, while Ekttitab Holding Co topped the volume with over 32 million shares changing hands.

Agility dipped 40 fils trading over 3.8 million shares while Zain slid 100 fils to close at KD 2.060.. Sultan Center slipped 5 fils and TWG did not move in either direction. Kuwait Gulf Links closed 10 fils lower while Wataniya Telecom remained stagnant at KD 2.080. NBK rallied 40 fils on back of 2.4 million shares while Gulf Bank did not budge from its previous close. CBK climbed 60 fils to KD 1.720. The lender is awaiting approval from the central bank to transform into an Islamic lender, a newspaper said last week.

Kuwait Finance House edged 20 fils down.
Elsewhere in the region, markets closed mostly in the positive territory. Saudi Al Tadawul All Stocks rallied 135.32 points reversing the decline in the earlier session, driven by Samba Financial Group and Al Rajhi Bank. Samba climbed 2.78 percent and Al Rajhi clocked 1.3 percent up.

Dubai Financial Market surged 105.63 points propelled by Emaar Properties and Dubai Islamic Bank and Abu Dhabi rose 0.74 percent to end at 4764.76 points on back of First Gulf Bank ( FGB) and Sorouh Real Estate.

Steadied
Oil meanwhile steadied near $109 a barrel on Wednesday within sight of its record high, bolstered by string European gas oil market and fresh weakness in the US dollar. US crude rose four cents to $108.79 a barrel, retreating from the record high of $109.72. London Brent took in one cent to close at $105.26, off an all time high of $105.82. Despite oil's record rally, analysts have said demand could be hurt by high prices and slower economic growth.

The steady decline in the US dollar has helped drive commodity prices up, while a sharp drop in US crude stocks and Opec'S decision last week to hold supplies steady has also boosted oil prices. The oil cartel which pumps more than a third of the world's oil had contended that the current high prices do not reflect market fundamentals and are being driven by speculation. Crude inventories in US is expected to rise by 1.7 million barrels in the week to March 7, a Reuters poll showed ahead of weekly US government inventory report.

By John Mathews

© Arab Times 2008