Kuwait - KUNA
Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the green zone, a report by Bayan Investment Company showed Saturday.
In its stock market's weekly report, Bayan Investment stated the stock market was able to realize good growth to its three indices, especially the Price Index which was able to break the 7,500 point level up, to reach its highest level in approximately 5 months.
It noted that the Price Index closed at 7,598.36 points, up by 1.47 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index increased by 0.77 percent after closing at 495.67 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed 1,211.58 points up by 1.06 percent.
Furthermore, last week's average daily turnover increased by 39.88 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 33.70 million, whereas trading volume average was 328.46 million shares, recording an increase of 36.38 percent.
The report argued that the stock market gains came as a result to the purchasing trend that the market is currently witnessing, which is focusing especially on the small-cap stocks.
"In the same context, the positive trading operations witnessed by some large-cap stocks during last week had a positive effect on the Weighted and KSX-15 indices, whereas both were able to compensate the losses incurred in the preceding week, to end last week's trading in the green zone.
"Moreover, the stock market initiated its first sessions with a grouped increase to its three indices, supported by the purchasing operations that were executed on some large-cap stocks, among a decline in the trading volume when compared to the previous session," reads the report.
However, the next session witnessed some mixed closings to the market indices, whereas the Price and Weighted indices were able to continue realizing gains supported by the continued purchasing operations that focused on the small-cap stocks, whilst the KSX-15 declined in light of the low profits that reached some of the large-cap stocks, especially in the Banking Sector. Such performance came among a noticeable increase in the trading activity, especially the value which increased by almost 85 percent.
On Tuesday's session, the stock market was able to realize growth to its three indices, especially the Price Index, supported by the continued purchasing operations concentration on the small-cap stocks, among a continued growth in the financial liquidity for a consecutive second session.
In addition, the stock market continued in realizing gains for its three indices in light of a continued growth in the trading value, which reached by the end of the session approximately KD 48 million, which is its highest level since last February.
Also, on Thursday's session, the stock market witnessed a stable performance with upward trend, whereas the three indices realized slight growth, among a decline to the trading indices when compared with the previous session.
For the annual performance, the report noted that the price index ended last week recording 0.65 percent annual gain compared to its closing in 2013, while the weighted index increased by 9.45 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 13.40 percent growth.
Nine of KSE's sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the others declined. Last week's highest gainer was the Financial Services sector, achieving 3.31 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,075.95 points.
Whereas, in the second place, the Banking sector's index closed at 1,125.10 points recording 1.57 percent increase. The Consumer Services sector came in third as its index achieved 1.52 percent growth, ending the week at 1,203.36 points.
On the other hand, the Basic Materials sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 0.51 percent to end the week's activity at 1,256.46 points. The Insurance sector was second on the losers' list, which index declined by 0.46 percent, closing at 1,211.67 points, followed by the Telecommunications sector, as its index closed at 768.63 points with a loss of 0.12 percent.
The Financial services sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 927.93 million shares changing hands, representing 56.50 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 17.48 percent of last week's total trading volume, with a total of 287.08 million shares. On the other hand, the Financials Services sector's stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of K.D 59.31 million or 35.20 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 40.96 million represented 24.31 percent of the total market trading value.