KSE LOOKS TO CLAW BACK GROUND

摘要

The past 12 months have not been easy for the Kuwait Stock Exchange. Close to Kd250m ($833.9m) was lost from the market's capitalisation, while the value-weighted index dropped by 3.1% for the year, according to figures from the National Bank of Kuwait. These developments went hand in hand with a fall in trading volumes in 2014, with a daily trading average 44% lower than 2013, at Kd29m. The collapse in global oil prices played a part in this dynamic, as it did across equity markets in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). "Last year was particularly tough for Kuwait's equity market. The Kuwait Stock Exchange performed poorly in relation to other GCC markets. In recent years, a lack of government spending has really dented investor confidence in the country. The market has been trading sideways for the majority of the past three years because we have been dealing with negative investor sentiment," says Jasem Al Zeraei, vice-president of brokerage at local financial services firm NBK Capital.