KUWAIT, March 6 (KUNA) -- Traders at Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) currently tend to abstain from trading in stocks of listed real-estate companies to spare themselves losses due to low performance of their enterprises locally and in the Gulf, according to financial analysts.

More than 60 percent of stocks of 38 property companies have posted no real deals, they said, expecting the lackluster atmosphere to persist in the sector of trade in shares of the real-estate companies, in absence of incentives and private enterprises.

Mohammed Al-Hajeri, an expert, said trade in property stocks is related to performance of the market, noting that the real-estate shares bullied following revelation of sales in January, estimated at KD 318 million. This gave the impression to the investors that the real-estate companies would post good profits in the first quarter of 2012, Al-Hajeri said.

Meanwhile, Financial analyst Maitham Al-Shakhs noted that many of the listed real-estate companies abstained from investing in the sector and shifted to dealing in stocks of other sectors, thus incurring losses caused by speculation. Moreover, a number of these companies liquidated non-earning assets.

Another analyst, Naif Al-Enezi, indicated that many of the companies that deal in properties have no stable assets and their financial figures reflect no clarity as to their basic activities, and only a handful of insiders are aware of their actual conditions. Such situation has prompted some traders to avert trading in their stocks, he affirmed.