KUWAIT CITY, Nov 12: Kuwait stocks slipped into red on Thursday extending last session’s pullback. The All Shares Index wrapped up the week with a 18.16 points drop to 5,514.29 pts in volatile trade led by some of the heavyweights. The Prime Market dipped 29.11 points to 6,103.54 pts while Main Market was up 4.54 points to 4,344.97 pts.

The BK 50 Main index rose 7.85 points to 4,439.88 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile receded for the second straight session. Over 192 million shares changed hands – down 20 pct from the day before. The sectors closed mostly in red. Consumer Goods outshone the rest with 1.1 pct gain whereas Industries shed 0.68 percent, the worst performer of the day. Banking continued to dominate with 87.2 million shares traded for KD 45.59 million. Among the notable losers, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait slipped 9 fils to 829 fils after trading 27.42 million shares while Boubyan Bank gave up 5 fils before ending at 625 fils.

Humansoft Holding extended Wednesday’s slide with 73 fils dip to KD 3.166 while Boursa pulled 18 fils lower. Zain eased 1 fil to 616 fils with a volume of 9.2 million shares while Ooredoo took in 1 fil. stc stood pat at 884 fils while Agility extended last session’s losses with 6 fils drop after pushing 5.5 million shares. KIPCO dialed down 2 fils and KAMCO was unchanged at 71.7 fils. Noor Financial Investment Co added 3 fils and Gulf Insurance Co jumped 20 fils to 590 fils. The market opened firm and ticked up in early trade.

The main index hit the day’s highest level of 5,535 points and headed south as sentiment soured amid selling in some of the counters. It swayed in both directions before bottoming at 5,473 pts past the midsession and clawed back some of the losses in the final hour to close with small losses.

Top gainer of the day, Massaleh climbed 9.22 pct to 37.9 fils and MENA rose 5.6 percent to stand next. IFA Hotels and Resorts skidded 6.4 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and National Bank of Kuwait topped the volume with 27.4 million shares. Reflecting the day’s drop, losers outnumbered the winners. 47 stocks advanced whereas 61 closed lower. Of the 122 counters active on Thursday, 14 closed flat. 12,952 deals worth KD 68.3 million were transacted during the session. National Industries Group eased 1 fil to 185 fils with a volume of 2.5 million shares while Mezzan Holding scaled 7 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co gave up 5 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co took in 1 fil.

Integrated Holding rose 4 fils to 361 fils and Aznoula tripped 1 fil after trading 2.5 million shares. Jazeera Airways soared 11 fils on back of 1.8 million shares to 630 fils and ALAFCO paused at 166 fils. Mashaer edged 0.8 fil lower to 60 fils and Inovest fell 3.8 fils to 73 fils. Oula Fuel inched 1 fil higher to 120 fils and Soor dialed up 2 fils.

IFA Hotels and Resorts tripped 1.1 fils while Gulf Petroleum Investment paused at 19.1 fils. Kuwait Cement Co was unchanged at 238 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement climbed 7 fils to 800 fils. Burgan Well Drilling Co and Kuwait Hotels took in 1 fil each whereas Sultan Centre gave up 2.3 fils. KCPC rose 4 fils to 330 fils and KPPC eased 0.2 fil. UPAC added 1 fil and Gulf Cable inched 1 fil up to 702 fils and Automated Systems Co eased 0.1 fil. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co crept 0.3 fil into green and Energy Holding erased 0.5 fil. Combined Group Contracting Co added 2 fils and Warbacap gave up 0.8 fil. ACICO Industries fell 3 fils to 96 fils and NICBM clipped 1 fil. In the banking sector, Gulf Bank dialed up 2 fils on back of 20.6 milion shares while Kuwait International Bank dialed down 2 fils after pushing 5.3 million shares.

Burgan Bank stood pat at 209 fils and Warba Bank gave up 2 fils. Ahli United Bank inched 1 fil up to 244 fils. The market was mixed during the week. The main index closed higher in three of the five sessions gaining 60 pts week-on-week. It has climbed 92 points from start of the month but is down 769 points year-to-date.

By John Mathews Arab Times Staff