KUWAIT CITY, May 5: Kuwait stocks gained momentum on Wednesday following the three-day advance. The All Shares Index rallied 49.34 points to 6,232.97 pts paced by Agility and some of other blue chips and mid caps even as the banks remained largely muted. The Premier Market soared 74.17 points to 6,757.82 pts taking the month’s gains to 130 points while Main Market slipped 7.16 points. The BK Main 50 scaled 20.86 points to close at 5,410.62 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile continued to rise for the second straight session. Over 525 million shares changed hands – up 5 percent from the day before. The sectors closed mixed. Insurance outpaced the rest with 6.41 percent gain whereas Technology slid 3.67 percent, the steepest decliner of the day.

Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 210 million shares and the sector also was ahead in value with KD 25 million. Among the standout performers, logistics major Agility soared 114 fils to KD 1.097 on back of 10.9 million shares taking the year’s gains to 421 fils while Humansoft Holding sprinted 208 fils to KD 3.600. Kuwait Investment Co climbed 10 fils to 204 fils and Tamdeen Investment paced 21 fils with razor thin trading. Mabanee Co rallied 24 fils to 741 fils after pushing 1.9 million shares. Zain eased 1 fil to 601 fils with a volume of 5.7 million and Ooredoo gave up 3 fils. stc slipped 9 fils to 887 fils and Kuwait National Cinema Co leapt 74 fils with thin trading.

KIPCO was up 4 fils at 161 fils and National Investment Co added 2 fils after moving over 2 million shares. YIACO gained 22 fils whereas NAPESCO slid 50 fils to 950 fils. National Industries Group ticked 1 fils higher to 210 fils on back of 33.2 million shares while Gulf Cable was down 3 fils at 817 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slipped 5 fils to 920 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co tripped 1 fil. Mezzan Holding rose 6 fils to 600 fils and Boursa Kuwait Securities paced 11 fils to close at KD 1.200. Jazeera Airways gained altitude with a 25 fils jump to 680 fils and ALAFCO added 3 fils with a volume of over 4 million. Integrated Holding took in 2 fils whereas Aznour tripped 1 fil. United Projects Co shed 31 fils whereas Combined Group Contracting Co gained 18 fils. Kuwait Cement Co was up 5 fils at 262 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement scaled 8 fils. The market opened firm and pulled higher in early trade.

The main index continued to climb amid buying support in some of the counters and plateaued well past the mid-session before peaking at 6,244 points. It sagged in the final minutes and close with hefty gains. Top gainer of the day, Sultan Centre rallied 18.47 pct to 29 fils while Agility stood next with 11.6 pct gain. Thuraya skidded 28.56 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank BSC topped the volume with 43.6 million shares. Refl ecting the day’s gains, the winners outnumbered the losers. 73 stocks advanced whereas 53 closed lower. Of the 143 counters active on Wednesday, 17 closed fl at. 17,708 deals worth KD 92.54 million were transacted during the session. In the banking sector, National Bank of Kuwait eased 1 fil to 827 fils after pushing 1.9 million shares whereas Kuwait Finance House stood pat at 726 fils with a volume of 5.3 million. Gulf Bank was unchanged at 225 fils and Kuwait International Bank too did not budge from its previous close of 217 fils. Boubyan Bank was down 4 fils at 667 fils.

Warba Bank took in 1 fils whereas Ahli United Bank BSC gained 4 fils with brisk trading. Commercial Bank paused at 500 fils and Al Ahli Bank clipped 2 fils. Ahli United Bank dialed down 1 fil to end at 316 fils. Al Imtiaz Investment was fl at at 125 fils with a volume of 16.9 million shares and International Financial Advisors dialed up 2 fils. Coast Investment added 2.7 fils while Arzan Financial Group closed 3 fils in green. Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) paused at 124 fils whereas Gulf Investment House slid 31 fils. KMEFIC took in 1 fil and Bayan Investment was up 3.1 fils at 60 fils. KFIC gave up 5.6 fils and KAMCO rose 5 fils to 111 fils. Unicap gained 5.7 fils whereas Al Deera Holding slipped 8 fils to 207 fils. Kuwait Insurance Co climbed 8 fils to 375 fils while Al Aheia Insurance Co skidded 44 fils. Gulf Insurance Group shed 176 fils and Warba Insurance Co trimmed 1 fils. The market has been upbeat so far during the week gaining 119 points in last four sessions. It had rallied 337 points during whole of April and is up 686 points year-to-date

By John Mathews Arab Times Staff