KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the red zone. The Price Index closed at 6,809.78 points, down by 0.22 percent from the week before closing, the Weighted Index decreased by 0.38 percent after closing at 427.14 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 971.66 points down by 0.33 percent. Furthermore, last week's average daily turnover decreased by 35 percent, compared to the preceding week, reaching KD 36.77 million, whereas trading volume average was 364.75 million shares, recording a decrease of 35.95 percent.

The three market indices closed with limited losses affected by the profit collection trend that was present during most of the week's sessions, amid declined levels of trading compared to the previous week, where the total value for the last week dropped by 35 percent to reach KD 183.86 million, and the volume decreased to reach 1.82 billion stock, down by 35.95 percent, while the total executed deals during the week reached around 38.32 deal, down by 28.31 percent.

The Boursa witnessed in the first session of the week a grouped decline for the three indices affected by the profit collection operations executed after the good gains witnessed during some previous sessions, where it included many listed stocks in the market, however concentrated mostly on the leading and heavy stocks, which caused all the Boursa indicators to drop, in parallel with a decline in the trading indicators especially the value that decreased by 22 percent by the end of the session.

On the next session, the three Boursa indices continued its decline affected by the continued selling and profit collection operations, which came amid a decline in the trading levels for the second consecutive session, where the volume dropped by 27 percent, and the value decreased by 15 percent.

The market continued its negative performance in the mid-week session, however at slower pace, as the selling operations continued in controlling the trading activity for the third consecutive session, amid a slight growth in the cash liquidity during the session, where it recorded an increase of around 13 percent.

Moreover, the market was able in the next two sessions to reverse its direction and go upward as the three indices were able to return once again to the green zone, compensating a part of its previous losses, especially in the last session of the week where it witnessed a grouped increase for all the market indicators, supported by the return of the speculative operations executed on the small-cap stocks in particular, in addition to the random purchasing operations that targeted some leading stocks after the declines witnessed in the previous sessions.

The Boursa lost more than KD 36 million of its market cap during the last five sessions, or 0.13 percent compared to a week earlier closings, where its total losses since the beginning of the month reached about KD 120 million, or 0.42 percent compared to January's closings.  However, the gains of the market cap since the beginning of the year contracted to reach 11.68 percent compared to its level at end of 2016 where it was KD 25.41 billion.

For the annual performance, the price index ended last week recording 18.47 percent annual gain compared to its closing in 2016, while the weighted index increased by 12.38 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 9.79 percent growth.

Sectors' Indices

Seven of Boursa Kuwait's sectors ended last week in the green zone, while the other five recorded declines. Last week's highest gainer was the Health Care sector, achieving 8.02 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,323.63 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Technology sector's index closed at 880.77 points recording 6.36 percent increase. The Consumer Goods sector came in third as its index achieved 2.94 percent growth, ending the week at 1,162.50 points. The Industrial sector was the least growing as its index closed at 1,521.13 points with a 0.41 percent increase.

On the other hand, the Telecommunications sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 4.13 percent to end the week's activity at 662.02 points. The Consumer Services sector was second on the losers' list, which index declined by 2.40 percent, closing at 964.90 points, followed by the Financial Services sector, as its index closed at 776.65 points at a weekly loss of 1.89 percent.

Sectors' Activity

The Real Estate sector dominated a total trade volume of around 729.42 million shares changing hands during last week, representing 40 percent of the total market trading volume. The Financial Services sector was second in terms of trading volume as the sector's traded shares were 28.80 percent of last week's total trading volume, with a total of around 525.18 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 50.22 million or 27.31 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 approx. KD 41.73 million representing 22.69 percent of the total market trading value.  -- Prepared by the Studies & Research Department, Bayan Investment Co.

BAYAN WEEKLY MARKET REPORT