"Main 50" Leads Stock Market Gains... Closes Up 1.1%

The Kuwait Stock Exchange maintained its gains at the close of Tuesday’s trading session, as the “Main 50” index continued to outperform other market components, with all four main indices finishing in positive territory, albeit trimming some of the mid-session highs.

Today’s rise follows five consecutive sessions of declines, characterized by clear selling dominance and sustained price pressure from the opening to the close of each session. However, the final sessions of the downward wave began to show a reduction in selling strength, with trading volumes falling below their averages, suggesting that selling pressure is losing some of its momentum.

During the previous downturn, stock prices absorbed a significant portion of concerns related to geopolitical developments, rising bond yields, and other pressing factors, even though markets typically price in future expectations in advance. As prices fell to more attractive levels, liquidity began to return selectively during today’s session, although volumes remained below levels that would indicate a broad shift in market direction.

The First Market Index rose by 0.18%, or 16.70 points, to 9,050.66 points, while the General Market Index increased by the same percentage, adding 15.52 points to close at 8,654.04 points. Total trading value at the end of the session reached approximately 74.01 million Kuwaiti dinars, through the exchange of 263.84 million shares across 19,330 transactions.

The “Main 50” index recorded a mid-session increase of 1.42% before closing with gains of 1.10%, remaining the strongest-performing index among the bourse indices. In contrast, gains for the other indices narrowed compared to mid-session levels; the “First” and “General” indices were up 0.45%, and the “Main” index rose by 0.49%.

“Bitak” topped the list of most actively traded stocks by value at approximately 8.60 million dinars, followed by “Gulf B” at around 4.46 million dinars, then “K Real Estate” at 4.34 million, “Watani” at 2.79 million, and “Eva” at 2.18 million dinars.

The list of top-gaining stocks showed a clear change from mid-session levels, with “Ahli” leading the gains at the close with a rise of 4.44%, followed by “Al-Motakamila” at 3.54%, “Meezan” at 2.76%, “Al-Mabani” at 2.09%, and “Gulf B” at 1.57%.

The Real Estate sector led gains with a rise of 1.10%, followed by Healthcare at 0.66%, Basic Materials at 0.49%, and Financial Services at 0.48%, while Banks rose 0.14% and Industry rose 0.12%. Consumer Goods recorded the largest sectoral gains during the session at 2.69%, while Utilities rose 1.51%. Conversely, the Technology sector recorded the largest decline at 4.53%, followed by Insurance at 1.65%, Energy at 0.44%, Telecommunications at 0.43%, and Consumer Services at 0.15%.