Kuwait's share index topped 10,000 points for the first time on Tuesday as investors bet on firm corporate earnings for this quarter against a solid economic backdrop, thanks to record oil prices.
The Kuwait Stock Exchange price index, grouping 150 mostly Kuwaiti firms, finished up 72.70 points, or 0.73 percent, at 10,023.50. It danced around the psychological level minutes to the close before ending just off the 10,024.30 session high.
It is up 56 percent year to date and is extending a bull run dating back to early 2001. The rally had accelerated in the run up to the 2003 US-led Iraq invasion that removed from power Saddam Hussein who invaded Kuwait in 1990.
"Kuwait earnings are higher, the macro picture is quite good, businesses are doing well, price-earnings (ratios) are low, so that could lead one to say that the price index in Kuwait has the potential to move higher," Mujib Moosa, senior analyst at Kuwait Financial Centre, said.
"We look at 10,000 as a psychological number," said Moosa. "People are also looking at 10,000 as a regional benchmark, the Saudi index is near 15,000 and the Qatar index near 12,000, and now Kuwait is (at) 10,000."
Among big gainers, KIPCO Asset Management rose 5.66 percent to 560 fils. The bourse said ahead of the opening the central bank gave approval to the firm Monday to buy back up to 10 percent of its shares for six months from September 17.
FLUSH IN CASH Global Investment House closed up 1.96 percent at 2.080 dinars. The investment firm with over $5 billion in assets under management told Reuters on Monday it planned to expand investments in the Middle East and North Africa to take advantage of oil-driven excess liquidity in the region.
Kuwait, which has nearly a tenth of global oil reserves, is enjoying record liquidity as a result of high petroleum prices and the government is expected to log a budget surplus of over 5 billion dinars for the current fiscal year ending March 2006.
Leading daily newspaper Al-Qabas on Tuesday said per capita income in Kuwait has increased to $18,460, making it the third highest level after Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The Central Bank of Kuwait said in its latest monthly report that total assets of Kuwaiti banks rose to 20.1 billion dinars ($68.7 billion) in August from 18.9 billion in the year-ago period, while deposits rose to about 13.2 billion dinars compared with 11.3 billion.
Some 57 stocks rose against 40 decliners on Tuesday.
Mobile Telecom Co (MTC) was up 0.97 percent at 5.200 dinar. MTC Atheer, a joint venture between MTC and Iraq's Atheer Telecom, has said the number of mobile phone subscribers in Iraq could grow by 400 percent to 5 million by year end.