Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended September with mixed performance. The Price Index closed at 5,725.96 points, down by 1.63 percent compared to the closings of the month before, the Weighted Index increased by 0.79 percent after closing at 388.40 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 935.06 points increasing by 1.73 percent.
Furthermore, last month's average turnover decreased by 4.63 percent, compared to the preceding month, reaching KD 13.01 million, whereas trading volume average was 145.90 million shares, recording increase of 4.44 percent.
As far as KSE performance during September; the three indicators closed mixed by the end of the month, as the Price Index could not get away from the red zone, due to the selling and quick speculative operations that concentrated on the small-cap stocks, which negatively affected its performance, however both Weighted and KSX-15 indices were able to end the monthly trading activity in the green zone, supported by the active purchasing power that targeted some largecap stocks
Moreover, the third quarter of the current year ends by the end of September, putting investors in a watch state for the listed companies' financial results for the same period, especially the Banks sector that witnessed an active trading activity on its stocks during the month.
Also, the market cap reached by the end of September KD 25.79 billion, up by 0.05 percent compared to its level in August, where it was then KD 25.78 billion. On an annual level, the market cap for the listed companies in KSE lost 7.81 percent from its value at end of 2014, where it reached then KS 27.98 billion.
For the annual performance, the price index ended last month recording 12.39 percent annual loss compared to its closing in 2014, while the weighted index decreased by 11.50 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 11.78 percent loss
Sectors' Indices
Six of KSE's sectors ended in the red zone by the end of September, while the other six recorded increases. Last month's highest gainer was the Basic Materials sector, achieving 7.71 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,009.90 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Technology sector's index closed at 886.04 points recording 2.49 percent increase. The Banks sector came in third as its index achieved 2.43 percent growth, ending the week at 927.34 points On the other hand, Health Care sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 8.59 percent to end the week's activity at 940.11 points. The Consumer Goods sector was second on the losers' list, which index declined by 7.82 percent, closing at 1,065.13 points, followed by the Consumer Services sector, as its index closed at 1,026.15 points at a loss of 6.30 percent. The Financial Services sector was the least declining as its index closed at 648.89 points with a 1.26 percent decrease.
Sectors' Activity
The Real Estate sector dominated total trade volume during last month with 972.28 million shares changing hands, representing 35.07 percent of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector's traded shares were 32.81 percent of last month's total trading volume, with a total of 909.51 million shares. On the other hand, the Banks sector's stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 69.33 million or 28.05 percent of last month's total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector's last month turnover of KD 50.51 million represented 20.44 percent of the total market trading value.
© Arab Times 2015
