Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the red zone amid strong selling operations driven by investors’ worries due to the political tensions, a specialized economic report showed Saturday.
The report, by Bayan Investment Company, pointed out that the Price Index closed at 6,940.24 points, down by 4.19 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 3.23 percent after closing at 471.30 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 1,152.83 points down by 3.25 percent.
Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 5.77 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 21.18 million, whereas trading volume average was 129.85 million shares, recording a decrease of 7.73 percent.
“The stock market indicators combined to close in the red zone for the second consecutive week, especially the Price Index, which declined below the 7,000 level for the first time since more than a year, in light of the large drop recorded by many of the large-cap and small-cap stocks,” reads the repot.
Bayan stated that the strong selling operations lead the stock market for a capital loss of approximately KD 1 billion during the last week only, as it declined by 3.13 percent when compared to the previous week, after it reached K.D. 29.79 billion by the end of the week.
The trading was “affected by the price drop of many stocks in light of the harsh selling trend witnessed by the market as a result to the investors’ worries due to the political tensions, which negatively affected the three indices, and in turn recorded steep losses compared to the preceding week trading,” added the report.
Moreover, the listed stocks of the Real Estate and the Financial Services sectors were affected the most by the selling operations during the last week, whereas both sectors recorded most of the losses among the different market sectors, which ended the weekly trading in the red zone.
For the annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 8.07 percent annual loss compared to its closing in 2013, while the weighted index increased by 4.13 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 7.90 percent growth.
On the sectorial level, Bayan figures showed that all of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone.
“Last week’s highest loser was the Real Estate sector which index declined by 6.17 percent, closing at 1,181.77 points, The Financial Services sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 5.96 percent, closing at 937.33 points, followed by the Telecommunication sector, as its index closed at 742.19 points at a loss of 4.64 percent. The Basic Materials sector was the last loser as its index closed at 1,193.69 points at a loss of 0.97 percent,” reads the report.
It noted that the Financial services sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 261.12 million shares changing hands, representing 40.22 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 32.49 percent of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 210.93 million shares.
“On the other hand, the Banking sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of K.D 35.81 million or 33.81 percent of last week’s total market trading value. The Real Estate sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was K.D 18.82 million represented 17.77 percent of the total market trading value.”
Source : KUNA Kuwait News agency
