Boursa Kuwait ended last week with mixed performance. The Premier Market Index closed at 4,810.39 points, up by 0.78%, the Main Market Index decreased by 1.05% after closing at 4,788.55 points, whereas the All-Share Index closed at 4,803.0 points up by 0.12%. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 3.87%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 10.51 million, whereas trading volume average was 68 million shares, recording a decrease of 7.32%.

The Boursa ended last week’s trading with mixed closings of its three indices, as the Premiere and All-Share indices were able to realize some weekly gains supported by the continued concentration of most traders on the leading and heavy stocks, while the Main Market Index went against the current and ended the week’s trading in the red zone, affected by the continued selling pressures on the small-cap stocks.

The Boursa lost around K.D. half billion during the last five sessions only, as its market capitalization reached by the end of the week K.D. 25.98 billion, down by 1.89% compared to K.D. 26.48 billion in a week earlier, where delisting of (Kuwait Food Company-Americana) from the Market during the last week contributed in such drop, as K.D. 490 million representing the market cap of the delisted company was removed from the total market cap value. Also, the Boursa loss since the application of the new market segmentation that took place on the beginning of the current month reached around K.D. 1.87 billion, down by 6.72%.(Note: The market capitalization of the listed companies in the Market is calculated based on the weighted average number of the outstanding shares as per the latest available official financial statements).

As far as the daily trading activity during the last week; the first session of the week witnessed a fluctuated closing of the three indices, whereas the Premier Market Index only benefited from the random purchasing operations executed on some leading stocks, especially in the Banks sector after the good new periodic results disclosed by some banks, while the All-Share and Main Market indices could not record gains and ended the session in the red zone affected by the selling operations that included some small-cap stocks. The Boursa witnessed such fluctuation in parallel with the noticeable decrease of the trading indicators, whereas the volume dropped by 44.77%, and the cash liquidity declined by the end of the session by 35.99%.

The Boursa performance did not differ from the previous session, as the Premier Market Index continued its upward direction in light of the continued concentration of the purchasing operations on the heavy stocks, while the red color continued to control the Main Market and All-Share indices due to the continued selling trend on the small-cap and mid-cap stocks, however, the trading indicators recorded a noticeable growth by the end of the session, whereas the cash liquidity increased by 37.99%, and the volume increased by 55.25%.

The mid-week session witnessed a return of the All-Share Index to the green zone after it was able to realize limited increase that did not exceed 0.09%, accompanying the Premier Market Index that continued to increase supported by the continued random purchasing operations on the leading stocks, which was opposite to the Main Market Index that added to its losses after recording a decrease of 0.30%, as a result to the continued selling operations on some small-cap and mid-cap stocks too.

On Wednesday’s session, the three Market indices met in the green closing zone for the first time in the week, as a result to the success of the purchasing powers that were present in the Market during the session, which included many stocks of different weights, on the selling pressures that were not absent from affecting the trading activity. The Market witnessed such performance despite the decreased trading levels of both the value or the volume, where the first decreased by 12.18%, and the second dropped by 16.46%.

The last session of the week witnessed a return to the fluctuation of the three Market indices, where the Premier Market and All-Share indices declined affected by the profit collection operations executed on the heavy and operational stocks, while the Main Market Index continued its increase supported by the random purchasing operations witnessed by some small-cap stocks especially after the drop in its prices reaching low levels.

Moreover, the Market witnessed during the last week a trading activity over 144 stock out of 175 listed stock in the Market, where 74 stock prices declined, against 62 stock prices increased, and 39 stock prices remained with no change.

Sectors’ Indices

Six of Boursa Kuwait’s sectors ended last week in the green zone, and six recorded declines. Last week’s highest gainer was the Insurance sector, achieving 1.31% growth rate as its index closed at 938.30 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Consumer Services sector’s index closed at 1,016.61 points recording 1.20% increase. The Banks sector came in third, as its index achieved 0.85% growth, ending the week at 974.98 points.

On the other hand, the Technology sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 5.51% to end the week’s activity at 1,012.66 points. The Telecommunications sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 2.90%, closing at 843.39 points, followed by the Consumer Goods sector, as its index closed at 897.58 points at a loss of 1.63%.

Sectors’ Activity

The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 112.81 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 33.19% of the total market trading volume. The Real Estate sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 26.84% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of around 91.24 million shares.

On the other hand, the Banks sector’s stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around K.D 24.53 million or 46.68% of last week’s total market trading value. The Industrial sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover was approx. K.D. 9.59 million representing 18.25% of the total market trading value.