Stock Market Losses Continue Amid Weak Liquidity

Selling pressure continued to dominate trading at the Kuwait Stock Exchange, recording a broad but uneven decline in indices at the start of the week, amid ongoing caution and anticipation driven by regional developments and fears of a renewed and escalating US-Iran conflict.

Although indices opened higher, this performance did not hold against selling pressure that emerged during trading, turning initial gains into uneven losses as sales affected a number of stocks.

Notably, trading liquidity levels dropped significantly to 38.9 million dinars, reflecting the caution prevailing among some traders amid current developments.

The First Market continued to capture the largest share of this liquidity, accounting for 61 percent, while the Main Market took the remaining 39 percent.

A number of stocks managed to achieve limited gains despite the overall negative performance, but their increases remained within narrow ranges, not exceeding 2.5 percent. Conversely, other stocks saw notable declines exceeding 13.5 percent.

Approximately 134 stocks were traded, with 29 rising, 81 falling, and 24 remaining unchanged. Weighted indices for nine market sectors declined, led by the Healthcare sector down 3.93 percent and Insurance down 2.97 percent. Meanwhile, indices for four sectors rose, topped by the Technology sector up 1.58 percent and Utilities up 0.76 percent.

In terms of index performance, the General Market Index fell by approximately 33.87 points, or 0.40 percent, to reach 8,442 points. A volume of 149.6 million shares was traded across 14,300 deals.

The First Market Index also declined by approximately 21.25 points, or 0.24 percent, to 8,870 points, with liquidity valued at 23.6 million dinars and a volume of 74.3 million shares traded through 6,445 deals.

The Main Index dropped by approximately 101.45 points, or 1.18 percent, closing at 8,486 points. The traded value reached 15.3 million dinars, with a volume of 75.3 million shares executed through 7,855 deals.

As a result, the market capitalization of the exchange incurred losses of approximately 207.3 million dinars, bringing the total market cap to 50.54 billion dinars, a decrease of 0.40 percent compared to the 50.75 billion dinars recorded at the close of last Thursday’s session.

Regarding the most traded stocks by value, Baitak ranked first with 3.97 million dinars, closing at a price of 759 fils. It was followed by Industries with 3.23 million dinars, closing at 209 fils, then GFH with 2.26 million dinars, closing at 161 fils, followed by Asyad with 2.14 million dinars, closing at 479 fils, and fifth was Gulf Bank with 1.71 million dinars, closing at 312 fils.

Mashayer led the list of the most rising stocks with a gain of 2.50 percent, trading 31.1 thousand shares to close at 123 fils. It was followed by Shuwaikh by 1.83 percent, with a traded volume of 9.6 thousand shares, closing at 223 fils, then Kamifex by 1.59 percent, trading 154 thousand shares to close at 128 fils, and Anzima by 1.58 percent, trading 611.1 thousand shares to close at 770 fils. Fifth was Injazat by 1.48 percent, trading 51.8 thousand shares to close at 137 fils.

On the other hand, Amtyazat shares fell by 13.53 percent to top the list of the most declining stocks, albeit with only 217 shares traded, closing at 326 fils. It was followed by Yopak, which dropped 9.88 percent with 635,700 shares traded, closing at 228 fils, then Awal Takaful, down 9.05 percent with 2.3 million shares traded, closing at 553 fils, and Markaz, which fell 8.80 percent with 1.4 million shares traded, closing at 228 fils. Fifth was Al Uqair, down 5.22 percent with approximately 25,200 shares traded, closing at 127 fils.