By: Mohamed Farouk  

Mubasher: The Kuwaiti indices plunged at Sunday’s close, dragged by growing fears over the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and how it is clobbering global and local stock markets alike.  

By the end of the session, the Premier Market retreated by more than 10% or 640 points to close at 5,750.41 points, even after the market had decided to suspend trading on its index for 15 minutes earlier today.     

The BK 50 and Main indices slid by 4.8% and 3.54%, respectively, while the All-Share Market dipped by 8.31%.  

On the contrary, the turnover climbed by 33.5% to stand at KWD 49.33 million on Sunday when compared to KWD 36.95 million in the previous session. The trading volume hiked by 46.9% to 199.68 million shares from 135.92 million.

The industry instrument was the top decliner with 10.47%, followed by the technology with 9.95%, whereas the consumer goods sector was the only gainer with 1.14%.

Alafco Aviation Lease and Finance Company came on top of the fallers with 18.47%, whereas Al Eid Food Company topped the risers with 10%.

The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) logged the largest turnover of KWD 11.53 million, the stock dropped 9.29%. Investors Holding Group led the trading activity through the exchange of 16.7 million shares, the stock sank 13.79%.     

The downward performance of the Kuwaiti stock exchange today directly reflects the exaggerating fear and panic promoted by different media platforms over the fast-spreading coronavirus, capital market analyst Talal Al Youssef told Mubasher.

Such performance cannot be justified by the ongoing virus developments as nothing major has taken place since the last week, he reiterated.  

The bourse’s negative performance was expected, Aljoman Center for Economic Consultancy said, adding that while the suspension of trading on the Premier Index for two times gave investors some room to breathe, however, it did not help but led to steep losses.