By John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 12: Kuwait stocks swung lower on Sunday following last week’s winning spree. The All Shares Index dipped 23.99 pts in choppy trade to 5256.87 points as profi t taking dragged most of the heavyweights into red.

The Premier Market skidded 31.74 points to 5424.11 pts while Main Market gave up 9.86 points to close at 4953.24 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile fell sharply snapping the fi ve-day rise. Over 118 million shares changed hands – down 33 pct from the previous session.

Sectors closed mostly in red. Con-sumer services out-led the rest with 0.53 pct gain whereas technology slumped 9.6 percent, the worst per-former of the day. Volume wise, fi -nancial services garnered the highest market share of 32 pct and real estate trailed with 22 pct contribution.

Among the notable fallers, Kuwait Finance House dropped 10 fi ls to 601 fi ls after trading 12.9 million shares while Mabanee partly erased Thurs-day’s gains with a 7 fi ls dip to 703 fi ls. Boubyan Petrochemical Co skid-ded 25 fi ls to KD 1.000.

Zain fell 4 fi ls to 495 fi ls after trading over 2 million shares and slid 14 fi ls to 795 fi ls with razor thin trade. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) was down 8 fi ls at 729 fi ls while Agility ticked 1 fi l lower to 892 fi ls and is trading 49 fi ls higher from start of the month.

National Bank of Kuwait inched 1 fi l up to 834 fi ls on back of 1.7 million shares while Boubyan Bank closed fl at. Moody’s Investor Ser-vices (Moody’s) had confi rmed Bou-byan Bank’s long-term deposit rating at “A3” with a “stable” outlook.

The market opened slightly weak and fell sharply in early trade. The main index bottomed at 5,230 points and rebounded briefl y before retreat-ing again as market mood vacillated. It managed to claw back some of the losses in the second half and closed with moderate losses.

Top gainer of the day, Sanam Real Estate Co spiked 9.8 pct to 59 fi ls and Taamer scaled 7.6 percent to stand next. Automated Systems Co sank 9.6 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Aayan topped the volume with 19.6 million shares.

Mirroring the day’s fall, the losers

outnumbered the winners. 45 stocks advanced whereas 63 closed lower. Of the 119 counters active on Sunday, 11 closed fl at. 4,832 deals worth KD 20.3 million were transacted – down 0.87 pct in value from the day before.

National Industries Group slipped 4 fi ls after trading 6.8 million shares and Mezzan Holding was down 9 fi ls at 710 fi ls. Al Qurain Petro-chemical Co trimmed 1 fi l and Gulf Cable clipped 2 fi ls before closing at 392 fi ls.

Kuwait Foundry Co rose 4 fi ls to 203 fi ls while ACICO and IFA Ho-tels and Resorts took in 1 fi l each. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co dipped 8 fi ls where-as Educational Holding Co sprinted 15 fi ls to 340 fi ls.

Humansoft Holding slid 26 fi ls to KD 3.430 erasing last session’s gains and NAPESCO too skidded 47 fi ls to 801 fi ls. Energy Holding fell 2.8 fi ls to 27.2 fi ls and Inovest ticked 0.4 fi l higher to 89.3 fi ls.

Automated Systems Co dropped 13 fi ls while Combined Group Con-tracting Co and Al Rai Media Group trimmed 1 fi l each before settling at 418 fi ls and 96 fi ls respectively. EK Holding was up 3 fi l at 341 fi ls.

Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co eased 1 fi l to 111 fi ls and KGL Logistics inched 0.4 fi l into red. Equipment Holding gave up 1.7 fi ls to wind up at 29.1 fi ls and Mashaer Holding Co closed 1.2 fi ls lower at 47.5 fi ls.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank fell 2 fi ls to 256 fi ls after trading 1.6 million shares and Kuwait Interna-tional Bank was down 3 fi ls at 255 fi ls. Burgan Bank dropped 4 fi ls to

280 fi ls and Warba Bank ticked 1 fi l into red.

Commercial Bank bucked the trend to gain 5 fi ls and Al Mutahed fell 2 fi ls to 301 fi ls. Ahli United Bank dialed up 1 fi l whereas Al Ahli Bank was not traded during the ses-sion.

KIPCO was unchanged at 231 fi ls and Gulf Finance House tripped 1 fi l to end at 107 fi ls. Kuwait Investment Co added 1 fi l while International Fi-nancial Advisors and Al Deera Hold-ing trimmed 0.1 fi l each.

KAMCO erased most of last ses-sion’s gains with a 3 fi ls drop to 72 fi ls while Ektittab Holding and Amwal In-vestment took in 0.1 fi l each. Securi-ties House clipped 0.6 fi l while Al Mal Investment inched 0.4 fi l into red.

National Investment Co slipped 1.3 fi ls to 92.2 fi ls and Sokouk Hold-ing took in 0.8 fi l. Kuwait Financial Centre ( Markaz) stood pat at 110 fi ls with thin trading and Noor Finan-cial Investment Co added 0.6 fi l.

Bayan Investment Co fell 2.7 fi ls to 46.7 fi ls and KFIC dialed down 1.4 fi ls. Coast Investment Co eased 0.2 fi l to 32.8 fi ls.

National Real Estate Co eased 1 fi l to 116 fi ls and Kuwait Real Estate Co clipped 0.4 fi l. Salhiya Real Estate Co paused at 330 fi ls and Tamdeen Real Estate took in 1 fi l. Mazaya Holding closed 1.5 fi ls down at 87.5 fi ls.

The market was upbeat during last week. The main index closed higher in four of the fi ve sessions scaling 75 points week-on-week and has rallied 90 points from start of the month. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the region.

The fi le photo shows the trading fl oor at Boursa Kuwait. The market opened the week with a downswing.

Iraqi Dinar stable vs US dollar

In spite of all the political, secu-rity and economic crises that Iraq endured in the past fi ve years, the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) has succeeded in maintaining a steady exchange rate for the national currency against the US dollar.

At that period, Iraq lost land to the so-called Islamic State (IS) and what followed during opera-tions to liberate occupied territo-ries have drained the treasury of

the central bank.To add insult to injury, the re-

cordable regression in oil prices was also a humongous chal-lenge for the country rich in oil resources.

Though the situation was bleak, the Iraqi dinar’s exchange rate steadied at 1,190 against one dollar, while prices in the local market ranged between 1,200 and 1,250 Iraqi dinar for one dollar.

The main reason for this sta-bility was the steady production and exportation of Iraqi oil, which kept fl owing in the world mar-kets.

Speaking on this matter, Iraqi economic counselor Moham-med Mathhar said in statement to KUNA, that Iraqi economy was powered by strong fi nancial fl ows that gave it a relative over-fl ow, which refl ected positively on the dinar. (KUNA)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 2018

25

Kuwait equities retreatinto red, volume drops

KFH shed 10 fi ls, KIPCO fl at

Saudi index dips below 100-day average

Gulf markets hit by Turkey turmoilDUBAI, Aug 12, (RTRS): Gulf stocks fell on Sunday, pressured by general weakness across emerging markets as investors steered clear of assets per-ceived as risky due to a diplomatic and economic spat between the United States and Turkey.

The Turkish lira plunged last week after US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium imports. On Friday, the lira fell 18 percent to a record low.

Other geopolitical factors, such as the reintroduction of US sanctions on Tehran, as well as the diplomatic dispute between Saudi Arabia and Canada, added further pressure to the markets.

The Turkish crisis weighed the most on the Qatar market. The index down 2.6 percent, was pulled down by Commercial Bank and blue-chip Qatar National Bank, which dropped 4.1 per-cent and 4.7 percent, respectively – the two worst performing stocks in the Qa-tari exchange Sunday.

QNB owns Finansbank in Turkey and Commercial Bank has a majority stake in Turkish lender Alternatifbank.

In Saudi Arabia, the index fell 1.4 percent, below its 100-day average for the fi rst time this year. It closed at 8,065 points, the lowest since late May.

Banks were mostly down, led by National Commercial Bank , which fell 3.2 percent on concerns about its exposure to Turkish assets. Al Rajhi Bank dropped 1.3 percent.

Despite Sunday’s sell off, “MENA (Middle East and North Africa) equi-ties remain under-represented in global portfolios (and are thus less exposed

to global EM (emerging market) out-fl ows),” said Sanat Sachar, equity re-search analyst at Al Mal Capital.

“GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) equities are pegged to the US dollar, and are thus insulated from the EM local currencies turmoil. This means that some asset allocators could even consider the GCCs as an EM safe ha-ven.”

According to Sachar, further turmoil in Turkey could exacerbate the differ-ential between MENA equities and other emerging markets.

In Dubai, where the index shed 1 percent, Air Arabia was down 2.9 per-cent.

The company last week reported a 24 percent drop in second quarter profi t. The low cost airline, which in June disclosed an exposure of $336 million to private equity group Abraaj – headed for liquidation – said in its fi nancial statement for the fi rst half of 2018 that a short term investment of 275 million dirhams in Abraaj had not been repaid after maturing at the end of June.

Air Arabia, however, had not made any provision for the investment “on the basis that the events are still un-folding,” it said.

All eyes in Dubai were on the emir-ate’s largest bank, Emirates NBD, which earlier this year agreed to buy Turkey’s Denizbank from Russia’s state-owned Sberbank for $3.2 billion.

There was an overhang on the bank’s stock because of the Turkish deal, one analyst said. Shares were down 1.7 percent.

Arqaam Securities said in a note the sharp fall in the Turkish lira since the

deal was announced could trigger a material adverse change clause, creat-ing the possibility for a renegotiation of the deal.

“This provides ENBD an opportu-nity to reduce the acquisition price by as much as 27 percent,” the note said.

Emirates NBD said in an email to Reuters it was closely monitoring the Turkish situation, but declined to com-ment whether the deal might be rene-gotiated.

Saudi Arabia■ The index slipped 1.4 percent to 8,065 points.

Dubai■ The index fell 1.1 percent to 2,889 points.

Abu Dhabi■ The index fell 0.6 percent to 4,845 points.

Qatar■ The index lost 2.6 percent to 9,635 points.

Kuwait■ The index fell 0.6 percent to 5,424 points.

Bahrain■ The index fell 0.1 percent to 1,348 points.

Oman■ The index went down 0.6 percent to 4,406 points.

Egypt■ The index fell 1.2 percent to 15,738 points.

Mideast Stocks