Banking sector top contributor to KSE capital value

Al-Shall weekly economic report stated that the Kuwaiti banking sector is considered the largest contribution to the capital value of the Stock Exchange — 62% as at the end of the first quarter of 2023, and the highest contribution to its profits in 2022 — 56.3 percent.

This is the most attractive to foreign indirect investment and the highest liquidity among the sectors of the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE), where it acquired 51.1% of the total stock market liquidity from the beginning of 2023 until the end of March 2023, including one bank that gained 57.8% of its liquidity during the aforementioned period and between the end of 2022 and the end of trading on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, reports Al-Jarida daily.

The concentration of their ownership was confined to five banks, the highest of their absolute investments in the National Bank of Kuwait, about 1.978 billion dinars, about 1.595 billion in Kuwait Finance House, about 155.4 million in Gulf Bank, about 142.6 million in Boubyan Bank, and about 128.6 million in Burgan Bank. This means that about 98.9% of foreign investments are concentrated in the five banks, leaving about 1.1% of those investments to other banks in the sector.

The day the stock exchange announced foreign ownership, the banking sector index decreased by -3.1%, while the contribution of foreigners in that sector increased. The information available until March 29, 2023 indicates that foreign investments in the sector increased in their absolute value to about 4.045 billion dinars, compared to about 3.909 billion at the end of 2022, and equal to about 15.44% of the capital market value of the sector, and it was about 14.47% at the end of 2022.