Boursa Kuwait Falls for Fifth Straight Week

The benchmark Boursa Kuwait all-share index fell 2.18% on the week to 8,290.81, while the premier market lost 1.89% and the main market dropped 3.60%. The main market 50 gauge sank 4.92%, highlighting a broader pullback across the exchange rather than a narrow rotation.

Market capitalization fell 2.19% week on week to 49.65 billion dinars, or about $161 billion, after shedding 1.11 billion dinars in value. Trading activity also softened, with weekly liquidity down 16.85% and volumes falling 18.18%, though the number of executed deals edged higher, suggesting more churn even as cash retreated.

All 13 sectors finished lower, led by technology’s 7.12% decline, while telecommunications posted the smallest loss at 0.74%. Services and financials dominated activity, with financial services accounting for the largest share of traded volume and banks attracting the biggest share of liquidity.

Individual names reflected the risk-off tone. Asymmetric moves were led by أسمنت, which fell 17.93%, while فنادق gained 8.11%. Gulf Bank was the most actively traded stock by volume, and National Bank of Kuwait, or بيتك, led turnover even as its shares fell 3.03% on the week.

Technically, the weak tone is reinforced by industry-standard indicators on Kuwait’s market gauge, which show momentum still soft and price action under pressure after the latest drop. For investors, the key test is whether regional tensions ease enough to let earnings and balance-sheet strength reassert themselves.

Until then, Boursa Kuwait looks set to trade with a defensive bias, with the next catalyst likely to come from geopolitics, followed by the next round of third-quarter earnings and any sign that foreign and local buyers are willing to step back in.