Kuwait – Mubasher: Boursa Kuwait succeeded in adding around KWD 570 million ($ million) to its market capitalisation last week, allowing total market cap to pass the KWD 26-billion mark for the first time in 2016.
The Kuwait Stock Exchange's (KSE) market cap reached KWD 26.2 billion last week, according to a new report released by Bayan Investment Co. on Sunday.
Capital gains achieved by KSE were boosted by strong purchasing of blue chip stocks. The gains were reflected on the performance of the bourse's three main indices, particularly the price index which was able to make up for all the losses it incurred since the start of the year.
The recent gains are attributable to a number of factors, namely: the rise in oil prices, the formation of a new Kuwaiti government added to KSE's official launch of the market-maker option.
The report also stated that the decision by the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) to hike rates to 2.5% from 2.25% moments after the US Federal Reserve Bank decided to raise interest rates by 0.25% to between 0.5% and 0.75% was unjustified.
The US and Kuwaiti economies are different, the first is the strongest in the world, while the second suffers many domestic problems, the report said.
It added that the CBK's rate increase is likely to hurt the Kuwait bourse, and will raise the cost of borrowing which is considered very high as opposed to the US.
