Despite weak start, KSE ends August trading in green zone

Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended August in the green zone with variance in gains of indices despite weak start due to traders' fears of suspension of their stocks over semi-annual results delay, a report by Bayan Investment Company unveiled Saturday.
   The report pointed out that the Price Index closed at 7,430.51 points, up by 4.20 percent compared to the closings of the month before, the Weighted Index increased by 2.13 percent after closing at 492.05 points, whereas the KSX-15 Index closed at 1,200.41 points increasing by 2.02 percent.
   It noted that the last month's average turnover increased by 44.33 percent, compared to the preceding month, reaching K.D 19.78 million, whereas trading volume average was 193.97 million shares, recording increase of 44.08 percent.
   "The stock market indicators were able to combine and close in the green zone, supported by the purchasing trend that controlled the market during most of the daily sessions of the month, especially the Price Index that was able to close at its highest level since last May in light of the increased purchasing operations on the small-cap stocks," reads the report.
   In addition, it argued that the stock market was subject to a state of watch and low trading activity during the month of August, especially during the first half of the month, due to traders' fears of having their stocks being banned from trading, in light of many companies delay to disclose its semi-annual results.
   "However most companies disclosure to its financial results before end of the legal period have prevailed some comfort environment on the market, and activated the purchasing activities, which positively impacted the stock market three indices, to end the monthly trading with relatively good gains," added the report.
   "On the contrary, the stock market witnessed during few daily sessions of the month some sale operations that had a negative influence on the market indices, as the profit collection operations were active mostly during the end of month sessions, plus the return of the quick speculative operations to affect the trading direction also, which partially lightened the market gains and limited the three indices increase"
   Moreover, the report said that many large-cap listed stocks witnessed sort of performance stability during last month's trading activity, which clearly appeared on the Weighted and KSX-15 performances that measure the performance of such stocks, whereas their gains were weak when compared to the gains realized by the Price Index, which benefited from the purchasing trend that targeted the small-cap stocks.
   For the annual performance, Bayan noted that the price index ended last month recording 1.58 percent annual loss compared to its closing in 2013, while the weighted index increased by 8.65 percent, and the KSX-15 recorded 12.35 percent increase.
   All of KSE's sectors ended last month in the green zone except for one sector. Last month's highest gainer was the Oil & Gas sector, achieving 10.10 percent growth rate as its index closed at 1,283.99 points.
   Whereas, in the second place, the Technology sector's index closed at 1,008.21 points recording 6.28 percent increase. The Financial Services sector came in third as its index achieved 5.06 percent growth, ending the week at 1,029.72 points. The Health Care sector was the least growing as its index closed at 1,040.18 points with a 1.25 percent increase.
   On the other hand, the Telecommunications sector was last week's only loser as its index declined by 1.02 percent to end the week's activity at 761.49 points.
   The Financial Services sector dominated total trade volume during last month with 2.01 billion shares changing hands, representing 49.22 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 20.87 percent of last month's total trading volume, with a total of 850.07 million shares.
   On the other hand, the Financial Services sector's stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of KD 120.16 million or 28.92 percent of last month's total market trading value. The Banking sector took the second place as the sectors last month turnover of KD 91.08 million represented 21.92 percent of the total market trading value.