The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) went up for a second day Monday, September 24, closing 1.56 percent higher in what analysts described as increased investor confidence in the local political situation. The KSE index closed at 1656.2 points, up 25.5 points from Sunday when the index also gained 10.1 points. On Saturday, the KSE shed 3.7 percent, dropping 64 points from Wednesday, after the Thursday-Friday weekend.
"People are feeling more confident now about the political situation in the country," economist Amr Al-Tamimi told AFP. "The good news about the emir's health coupled with the fact that they don't feel the international economy will be in jeopardy," has boosted the market, he explained.
Kuwait's Amir Shaikh Jabar Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah is recovering in London's Cromwell Hospital after suffering a minor brain hemorrhage Friday. "Many investment companies will also now have a more comfortable assessment of their assets abroad," Tamimi continued. "It's all psychological. And it's significant that the index went up the past two days," he said.
Tamimi expected the index to exceed the 1,700-point barrier "within the coming few days. It will hopefully reach the 2,000 mark by the end of this year." Last week, the KSE dropped five percent to 1684.60. The Kuwait market had boomed in recent months, rallying past the 1,700-point barrier for the first time since December 1998 after plunging to a five-year low in January.
The rise was attributed to government economic reforms and strong prices of oil, which accounts for 90 percent of the emirate's budget revenues. Leading economist Jassim Al-Saadun described the current trading factors as "more psychological than logical. Now everyone will watch what will happen on Wall Street," he told AFP. "(KSE) is not a local market and it's not something we can try to anticipate," said Saadun. The KSE is the second largest in the Arab world in terms of capitalization after Saudi Arabia's NCFEI index. ― (AFP, Kuwait City)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
