Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) continued its downward trend for the second week driven by the continued activity of the profit collection operations and traders speculative behavior that caused the main market indicator to fluctuate.
The report, by Bayan Investment Company, pointed out that the Price Index closed at 7,430.95 points, down by 0.23 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.44 percent after closing at 492.80 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 1,202.83 points down by 0.73 percent.
Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 24.84 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 20.33 million, whereas trading volume average was 168.93 million shares, recording a decrease of 33.93 percent.
“Moreover, the stock market witnessed last week profit collection operations concentrated on the large-cap and blue-chip stocks, which impacted the Weighted and KSX-15 indices, whereas both declined the most during last week when compared to the Price Index, especially that most of the large-cap stocks’ prices recorded noticeable gains during the previous period, due to the optimism state that was controlling a large part of the traders, as a result to the previous discussions around the amendments of some articles of the Capital Markets Authority’s law,” reads the report.
On the other hand, Bayan noted that the stock market witnessed last week a slow and weak trading activity, as a result to the traders’ preference to watch and wait for the upcoming country’s economic and political conditions, in addition to watch state of some others for the first quarter financial results, among fears of having some companies’ stocks being stopped from trading, if such companies were not able to disclose its financial results before the end of the legal disclosure period, which will end by mid of the current month.
For the annual performance, the report data showed that the price index ended last week recording 1.57 percent annual loss compared to its closing in 2013, while the weighted index increased by 8.82 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 12.58 percent growth.
At the sectorial levels, Bayan said that seven of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, while the other five recorded increases.
“The Telecommunications sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 2.86 percent to end the week’s activity at 820.19 points. The Technology sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 2.63 percent, closing at 963.86 points, followed by the Industrial sector, as its index closed at 1,150.64 points at a loss of 1.11 percent. The Banking sector was the least declining as its index closed at 1,133.43 points with a 0.23 percent decrease.
“On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the Consumer Goods sector, achieving 1.97 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,305.49 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Oil & Gas sector’s index closed at 1,219.09 points recording 1.09 percent increase. The Insurance sector came in third as its index achieved 0.89 percent growth, ending the week at 1,140.63 points.” The report added that the Financial Services sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 363.62 million shares changing hands, representing 43.05 percent of the total market trading volume.
“The Real Estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 20.61 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 174.05 million shares,” unveiled the report.
On the other hand, the Financial Services sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of K.D 26.99 million or 26.55 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Banking sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was K.D 24.18 million represented 23.79 percent of the total market trading value.
Source : KUNA Kuwait News agency
