Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended last week in the red zone. The price index ended last week with a decrease amounted to 0.32%, while the weighted index retreated by 2.48% compared to the closings of the week before. Furthermore, last week’s average daily turnover decreased by 3.22%, compared to the preceding week, reaching K.D 33.34 million, whereas trading volume average was 315.70 million shares, recording decrease of 5.92%. The market performance marked with a limited hesitation during last week, along with selling trend, particularly for those companies who announced negative 2011 financial results, and especially in the Investment sector, which recorded the highest losses among KSE listed companies.

The market was also affected by some selling deals on some leading and operational stocks, which caused the weighted index to suffer more losses than the price index. Moreover, the legal announcement period has ended, the number of declared companies reached 82% so far. The total number of declared companies reached 169 out of 205 listed companies, realizing approximately K.D. 1.34 billion, with a decline of 24.75% compared to same companies’ results for 2010. By the end of the week, the price index closed at 6,145.5 points, down by 0.32% from the week before closing, whereas the weighted index registered a 2.48% weekly loss after closing at 409.77 points.

Sectors’ Indices
Six of KSE’s sectors ended last week in the red zone, while the other two recorded increases. The Non Kuwaiti Companies sector headed the losers list as its index declined by 2.39% to end the week’s activity at 5,849.3 points. The Banks sector was second on the losers’ list, which index declined by 1.74%, closing at 11,348.8 points, followed by the Insurance sector, as its index closed at 2,670.9 points at a loss of 1.09%. The Services sector was the least declining as its index closed at 14,009.8 points with a 0.10% decrease. On the other hand, last week’s highest gainer was the Investment sector, achieving 1.28% growth rate as its index closed at 3,994.0 points. Whereas, in the second place, the Real estate sector’s index closed at 2,208.6 points recording 0.37% increase.

Sectors’ Activity
The Real estate sector dominated total trade volume during last week with 489.16 million shares changing hands, representing 30.99% of the total market trading volume. The Services sector was second in terms trading volume as the sector’s traded shares were 25.48% of last week’s total trading volume, with a total of 402.26 million shares. On the other hand, the Services sector’s stocks where the highest traded in terms of value; with a turnover of K.D. 46.73 million or 28.04% of last week’s total market trading value. The Banks sector took the second place as the sector’s last week turnover of K.D. 35.90 million represented 21.54% of the total market trading value.

Market Capitalization
KSE total market capitalization declined by 2.56% during last week to reach K.D. 28.08 billion, as all of KSE’s sectors recorded a decrease in their respective market capitalization except for one sector. The Services sector headed the decliners list as its total market capitalization reached K.D. 6.56 billion, decreasing by 5.98%. The Non Kuwaiti Companies sector was the second in terms of recorded decline with 3.49% decrease after the total value of its listed companies reached K.D. 1.70 billion. The third place was for the Food sector, which total market capitalization reached K.D. 683.76 million by the end of the week, recording a decline of 2.13%. The Industry sector was the least declining with 0.34% recorded decrease after its market capitalization amounted to K.D. 2.18 billion. On the other hand, the Investment sector was last week’s only gainer as its total market capitalization increased by 0.49% to reach, by the end of the week, K.D. 2.16 billion.

For further details, please visit our web site: www.bayaninvest.com