Kuwait stock exchange market value hits dinar 30.4bn

The market value of Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) hit KD 30.4 billion by end of first half of 2014, growing by KD 283.5 million from the corresponding period last year, according to the economic report Monday.
The stock market closed the last trading week of the first half with mixed performance as the Weighted Index gained 16.9 point or 3.7 percent, the NIC-50 - a market capitalization weighted index which tracks the 50 most traded KSE-listed companies, rose by 196.9 points or 3.9 percent, and Kuwait-15 rose by 71.6 points or 6.7 percent, whereas the Price Index dropped by 578.1 points or 7.7 percent, the report, issued by the National Investments Company (NIC), saud.
Regarding the turnout, the report said its daily average declined by 11.8 percent in the six months to KD 27.7 million, compared to KD 31.4 million in H2-2013, according to the report.
The early transactions of second quarter 2014 came below expectations, with the value of traded shares standing at KD 8.8 million in last May which is a record low since January, 2013.
The report attributed the recent fluctuation of the benchmark to a range of causes, including the investors' wait for the financial results of the Q1-2014.
Some companies prefer to postpone the announcement of their results to the end of legal period which is 45 days after the end of Q1; this state of wait-and-see pushed the Price Index down to 7,408 points by the end of April which is 2.2 percent down from the figures of the previous month