(MENAFN- Arab Times) Kuwait stocks clawed back Wednesday as the market continued to seesaw during the week.
The index rose 19.57 points to 5,732.01 points as investors remained wary of the market direction. Some of the mid-caps edged higher in speculative trading even as the blue chips closed mostly mixed. The bourse had plunged 3.61 percent in October amid political worries.
The KSX 15 measure eased 0.21 points to 983.72 points and is down over 16 points from its baseline whereas weighted index inched 0.01 pts lower. The volume turnover ebbed sharply after holding above the 300 million mark in the last two sessions. 169.71 million shares changed hands - down 47.21 percent from Wednesday.
The sectors closed mixed. Insurance, out led the rest with 0.61 percent increase whereas telecom dropped 1.30 percent - the biggest loser of the day. In terms of volume, financial services topped with 45.98 percent market share and real estate stood next with 35.19 percent.
National Industries Group rose 2 fils on back of 2.71 million shares after pulling lower in the previous session and Gulf Cables climbed 20 fils to KD 1.100. Kuwait Food Co (Americana) was up 20 fils at KD 1.620. The stock has shed 20 fils so far during the month after gaining 40 fils during whole of October.
Kuwait Co For Plant Process Plant Construction and Contracting rose 15 fils with thin trading and Hilal Cement Co added 8 fils to end at KD 0.250. Kuwait Portland Cement gained 0 fils while Metal and Recycling Co took in 6 fils.
Agility was flat at KD 0.500 off early lows while Wataniya Telecom shed 20 fils as it extended the decline . Bourse heavyweight Zain slipped 10 fils to KD 0.740 after stagnating on Tuesday. The telco has logged a third-quarter net profit of KD 59.7 million, down 15 percent from the year before period.
Eased
The market opened on tame note and moved sideways in early trade. The index eased slightly almost half way into the session and hit the day's lowest level of 5,709.83 pts. It nudged higher thereafter and drifted range bound before peaking at 5,733.01 points in the final minutes.
Top gainer of the day, Zimah spiked 9.43 percent to 58 fils while Kuwait Financial Investment Co climbed 7.46 percent to stand next. Gulf North Africa Holding Co (GNAHC) slid 6.41 percent, the biggest loser of the day, while Gulf Investment House topped the volume with 27.74 million shares.
Reflecting the day's gain, the winners outpaced the losers. 48 stocks advanced whereas 33 closed lower. Of the 127 counters active on Wednesday, 46 closed flat. 3,446 deals worth KD 16.36 million were transacted - down 34.44 percent in value from the day before.
The market had posted surged over 92 pts on Monday as investors showed relief after the protests turned out to be less violent than anticipated. "The protests did break the curfew rules but they're weren't aggressive - this gave relief to the market that was worried about conflict between protestors and the security forces," Reuters quoted Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage at Global Investment House earlier in the week.
On the downside, Combined Group Contracting Co dropped 20 fils to KD 1.40 and Kuwait Foundry Co pulled 5 fils lower to KD 0.330. RISCO eased 2 fils to KD 0.232. The company has logged KD 2.247 million net profit and earning per share of 25.39 fils in the first nine months of the year.
KGL Logistics slipped 5 fils to KD 0.265 and Jazeera Airways followed suit to wind up at KD 0.475. ALAFCO was flat at KD 0.310 and United Industries Co too did not budge from its previous close of 92 fils. The company has earned KD 2.85 million in the first nine months of 2012 and in the third quarter it surged 315.1 percent year-on-year to, KD 0.337 million.
In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait was flat at KD 0.970 after trading in red earlier in the day while Gulf Bank slipped 5 fils to KD 0.395, erasing the gains on Tuesday. Commercial Bank of Kuwait and Al Ahli Bank were not traded during the session.
Pulled
Kuwait International Bank stagnated at KD 0.280 and Ahli United Bank pulled followed suit. The bank has recorded KD 8.45 million net profit in July-September period while in the first nine-months it reached KD 29 million. The lender has set aside KD 12.55 million provisions even as the bad loan coverage ratio reached 176%.
Boubyan Bank rose 10 fils on back of 1.38 million shares and Burgan Bank too was up by same measure. Kuwait Finance House was steady at KD 0.750. The central bank has approved KFH's request to buy back or sell 10% maximum of its issued shares for further 6 months starting from Oct 19, 2012.
Kuwait Investment Co gained 5 fils to close at KD 0.102 and International Financial Advisors inched 0.5 fils higher. The counter saw 1.38 million shares changed hands during the session. National Investment Co climbed 4 fils and KIPCO was up 10 fils at KD 0.390.
Securities House Co fell 1 fils and Kuwait Financial Centre Co edged 2 fils lower. KAMCO added 2 fils to end at KD 0.110. The company has obtained the Capital Market Authority approval to buy-back or sell up to 10% of own shares over the period starting September 17, 2012.
Al Mal Investment was flat at 36 fils whereas Bayan Investment added 1.5 fils to wind up at 38 fils. Noor Financial Investment ticked 1 fils up. The firm has inked an agreement with Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait to restructure debts amounting to K D 34.515 million to be settled over 6.
The bourse has mixed so far during the week as has gained 76.58 points in last four sessions. The index has retreated 34.95 points from start of the month and is down 1.03 percent year-to-date. KSE, with 213 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region.
In the bourse related news, Osoul Investment announced has clocked a net profit of KD 31,005 and earnings per share of 0.16 fils in the January-September period as against of earnings of KD 297,877 and EPS of 1.58 fils in the same period last year.
Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait has posted net profit of KD 30,353,000 and earnings per share of 20 fils in the nine months to September 2012 as compared to earnings of KD 39,885,000 and 27 fils in the comparable period in 2011.
Al-Tamdeen Investment has earned KD 4,475,284 with earnings per share of 15.03 fils in January-September period as against net profit of KD 4,461,515 and earnings per share of 14.90 fils in the same period last year.
Independent Petroleum Group has recorded net profit of KD 5,077,000 and earnings per share of 35.10 fils in the first three quarters of 2012 as against net loss of KD 3.832 million and loss per share of 26.50 fils in the January-September period of 2011.
Kuwait Stock Exchange has suspended trading the shares of the following companies for failing to submit the results in the stipulated times. They are:
Al-Safat Investment Company, Kuwait Commercial Markets Complex, Industrial Investments Company, Aayan Leasing & Investment Co, Al Imtiaz Co, Jeeran Holding Co. The following companies were banned from KSE from posting losses of 75% or more of the capital: Global Investment House, Al-Ahlia Holding Coand Al Safwa Holding Group.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.