KUWAIT CITY, 10 July 2003 — The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) gained five percent in the week to yesterday as traders capitalized on the belief the market would continue to be propped up by major investors, economists said.
The index finished on 3,764.4 points, up 181.5 points on the week and 58.5 percent on the year. “Traders believe the market is going to be backed by the government or big traders so they will try to gain maximum profit as long as they can,” said Jassim Al-Saadun.
“But there’s no real faith in the positive direction of the market,” in which the index is now heavily fluctuating during daily trading, said Saadun, who heads the independent Al-Shall Consultants. Trading value this week dropped to an average $189 million from $201 million last week.
In June, the KSE set a new average trading value of more than $360 million in a market that for the first half of this year saw consistently high cash flows and defied fears of the fallout from the US-led war in Iraq.