(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Mohammad Kamal KUWAIT, Aug 22 (KUNA) -- The key indices of Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) settled in the red zone at end of Monday's session, amid a persisting lackluster atmosphere and absence of incentives -- gripping the stock market for some time.
Stocks under umbrella of the key index, Kuwait-15, dominated the operations, by approximately 80 percent of trading value. Stocks of the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) were valued at more than KD two million, while those of Kuwait Finance House stood at KD 1.6 million.
Stocks of the transport, financial services and insurance's sectors were in the green zone, amid selective trades on shares of the other sectors.
Today's activity focused on bullish shares of 22 companies, unlike those of 47 others that shed losses -- among 115 companies that got involved in the deals.
Kuwait-15 index possessed 12.6 million shares, valued at more than KD 6.09 million, done in 363 spot transactions, thus the index closed at 810.63 points.
Among the effective news at the market today was a report saying that JFH Group signed a MoU with Bank Alkhair to acquire most of its shares. Other attention-drawing news were those related to the financial revelations by the Kuwait-Egyptian Holding for Q2, 2016, which climbed 16 percent as compared to the same period of 2015. The profits were estimated at USD 10.98 million, in contrast to USD 9.47 million for Q2, 2015.
The Kuwait-Egyptian Holding's statement showed posting net profits amounting to USD 32.2 million for 1H, 2016, against USD 22.8 million the same period last year, growing by 40.7 percent.
The KSE ended trading in the red zone on Monday. The price index moved down 24.57 points to stand at 5,443.2 points, the weighted index was also down 1.51 points to read 348.95 points, and the KSX 15 index shed 2.66 points reaching 810.63.
Value of trade was KD 8 million while the volume was 42 million shares, done through 1,380 deals. (end) mke.lb.rk