KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the green zone. The Price Index closed at 5,198.37 points, up by 3.75 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index increased by 3.62 percent after closing at 357.34 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 840.55 points up by 3.81 percent. Furthermore, last week's average daily turnover increased by 29.51 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 16.38 million, whereas trading volume average was 183.98 million shares, recording an increase of 10.45 percent.

The stock market witnessed a positive performance, however speculative, whereas the three indices were able to realize gains for the second consecutive week, among an increased purchasing operations that included many stocks of different sectors, especially after the big declines that hit such stocks lately, which made its prices tempting for purchase. The stock market witnessed such positive performance despite the watch and cautious state that is controlling the traders, waiting for the listed companies disclosures for the financial year 2015; especially that more than one third of the legal given period for the listed companies to announce its results have passed, though only 27 listed company have disclosed its results, including some companies with year-end before 31 December, representing 14.21 percent of the 190 total listed companies in the official market.

The stock market initiated its first sessions of the week with noticeable growth to the three indicators, among an increased trading activity compared to the previous session, supported by the active purchasing operations that witnessed by many stocks of most of the sectors, especially in the Financial Services and Banks sectors, which increased the most during the week. The next session witnessed a limited decrease in the three indices as a result to the profit collection operations that many stocks were subject to, especially the ones of previous strong gains, among a sharp decline in the trading activity, especially the value which dropped by more than 50 percent by the end of the session.

In the mid of week session, the three stock market indicators returned to close in the green zone, benefiting from the random purchasing operations that included some leading stocks, before the return of the profit collection operations to negatively control the market indicators' performance once again, and concentrated on the leading and heavy stocks, which affected the Weighted and KSX-15 indices to record strong losses by the end of the session. On the end of week session, the three stock market indicators were able to realize noticeable growth affected by the return of the purchasing operations in controlling the trading direction, among a big increase in the trading activity during the session, whereas the trading volume increased by more than 115 percent, and the trading value grew by around 95 percent.

The market capitalization for KSE reached by the end of last week K.D. 23.69 billion, increasing by 3.7 percent, compared to its level in a week earlier, which was KD 22.85 billion. On an annual level, the market cap for the listed companies in KSE declined by 6.22 percent from its value at end of 2005, where it was KD 25.27.

As far as KSE annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 7.42 percent annual loss compared to its closing in 2015, while the weighted index decreased by 6.38 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 6.65 percent loss.

Sectors' Indices

All of KSE's sectors ended last week in the green zone except for one sector. Last week's highest gainer was the Financial Services sector, achieving 6.63 percent growth rate as its index closed at 539.47 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Industrial sector's index closed at 979.20 points recording 4.27 percent increase. The Consumer Goods sector came in third as its index achieved 3.89 percent growth, ending the week at 1,036.97 points. The Technology sector was the least growing as its index closed at 816.99 points with a 0.70 percent increase. On the other hand, the Telecommunications sector was last week's only loser as its index declined by 1.12 percent to end the week's activity at 579.87 points.

Sectors' Activity

The Financial Services sector dominated a total trade volume of around 305.65 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 33.23 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 28.43 percent of last week's total trading volume, with a total of around 261.53 million shares.

On the other hand, the Banks sector's stocks were the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of around KD 36.02 million or 43.96 percent of last week's total market trading value. The Financial Services sector took the second place as the sector's last week turnover was approx. KD 12.35 million representing 15.07 percent of the total market trading value. --Prepared by the Studies & Research Department, Bayan Investment Co.