NBK climbs 20 fils; Zain up 10 fils

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 6: Kuwait stocks eked modest gains Thursday to wind up week on positive note. The index rose 6.5 points in choppy trade led by select blue chips even as investors eyed value shares ahead of the Q3 earnings. However some of the mid-priced stocks sagged on selling pressure.

The bourse wound up at 5,826.1 points after trading in red earlier in the session while the weighted index was up 1.93 points at 408.82. The volume turnover climbed 6.1 percent to 161.03 million adding to the strong rebound on Wednesday. It had hit a multi-month high of 337.86 million on Sept 13, but retreated thereafter.

National Bank of Kuwait rose 20 fils recouping the loss on Wednesday and wound up at KD 1.080. Wataniya Telecom jumped 60 fils to KD 1.940 after closing lower in the previous session. The stock had slipped 4.08 percent in September and is trading 40 fils higher from start of the year.

Bourse heavyweight Zain gained 10 fils on back of 1.51 million shares to end at KD 0.940. The stock was in limelight in last week of September after the telco scrapped a joint bid by Kingdom Holding and BATELCO to buy stake in Zain Saudi as the lenders refused to transfer the debt guarantees.

Agility was up 15 fils at KD 0.360 with a volume turnover of 9.11 million shares. The logistics service provider had pleaded not guilty in August to fraud charges leveled by US government over multibillion-dollar defense supply contracts.

Growth
"Agility looks well positioned to capitalise on growth in emerging markets," Rasmala said in a research note. "We believe a worse-than-expected outcome to the legal case with the US government is priced in. Agility's focus has shifted to its commercial logistics business."

The market opened flat and slipped lower in early trading. The index moved range bound as investors toed caution and hit the day's lowest level of 5798.7 points well past the mid- session. However, it recovered sharply in the final minutes and managed to close with modest gains.

Top gainer of the day, National Ranges Co (Mayadeen) spiked 13.33 percent to 17 fils while Livestock Transport and Trading Co climbed 8.87 percent to stand next. Combined Group Co slid over 7 percent, the biggest decliner of the day, while Mayadeen topped the volume with 31.04 million shares.

The market spread was skewed towards the gainers. 38 stocks advanced while 29 closed lower. Of the 100 counters active on Thursday, 32 closed flat. 2566 deals worth KD 19.47 million were transacted - down 3.7 percent in value from the previous session.

On the down side, Jazeera Airways slipped 10 fils to KD 0.300 partly reversing the gains on Wednesday and Burgan Well Drilling Co followed suit to end at KD 0.300. Egypt Kuwait Holding Co too was down 10 fils and United Gulf Bank edged 2 fils lower.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank closed flat at KD 0.500 whereas Commercial Bank was not traded during the session. Al Ahli Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of KD 0.600 while Ahli United Bank fell 10 fils.

Kuwait International Bank was unchanged at KD 0.270 after trading lower earlier in the day, while Burgan Bank edged 5 fils down. Kuwait Finance House held the ground steady at KD 0.900 . Capital Intelligence (CI) earlier last month had affirmed the KFH's Foreign Currency Long and Short term ratings at 'A+' and 'A1' respectively, while the Financial Strength Rating is placed at 'BBB+.

Flat
Boubyan Bank closed flat at KD 0.600. The lender has obtained the approval of Central Bank of Kuwait to renew request to buy back a maximum of 10% of its issued shares for a period of 6 months starting from Oct 14, 2011.

Investment major KIPCO was flat at KD 0.310 and National Investment Co too was steady at KD 0.190. International Financial Advisers inched 1 fils higher. IFA has posted a first half net loss of KD 3,822,539 and loss per share of 5.70 fils as against net loss of KD 11,688,074 and l oss per share of 17.86 fils in the same period last year.

Kuwait Financial Centre Co (Markaz) and Al Maal Investment Co stagnated whereas Bayan Investment was up 0.5 fils at 32 fils. Global Investment House rose 2.5 fils and Al Safat Investment gained 3 fils on back of 4.08 million shares.

National Real Estate Co took in 2 fils whereas Salhiya Real Estate and Tamdeen Real Estate fell 2 fils each. Mabanee Co was down 10 fils at KD 0.820 and Mazaya Holding added 4 fils.

National Industries Group slipped 2 fils to KD 0.220 with a volume of 3.14 million shares while Kuwait Pipes rose 2 fils to settle at KD 0.148. Kuwait Cement Co dropped 10 fils to KD 0.480 whereas Gulf Cables closed flat at KD 1.480. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co slid 20 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement shed 20 fils.

The bourse had been mixed during the week. It closed lower in two of the five sessions and eased 7 points week-on-week. The index had gained 42 points during whole of September and is trading 16 percent lower year-to-date. KSE, with 213 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region.

In the bourse related news, Zain Iraq, a unit of Kuwait's Zain said that it was moving forward in the process to be listed on the local bourse after it missed an Aug 31 deadline for offering its shares.

Al-Safat Investment Co has posted a net loss of KD 9,491,858 and loss per share of 12.30 fils in the first half of 2011 as against net loss of KD 1,052,962 and loss per share of 1.36 fils in the same period last year.

Burgan Well Drilling Co has clocked a net profit of KD 253,359 and earnings per share of 1.21 fils in the second quarter ending June 30. This compares with net profit of KD 145,125 and earnings per share of 0.69 fils in 2010 Q2.

Gulf Finance House has posted KD 193,670 net profit in the first half of 2011 while earnings per share chalked 1 fil. This compares with a net loss of 13,115,943 and loss per share of 29 fils in the same period.

© Arab Times 2011