The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) continued its slide on Tuesday, January 9, closing to a new five-year low amid fears that the index might drop below the 1,300-point psychological barrier.
The KSE index lost 5.9 points to close at 1,320.5 points, the lowest level since November 1995, and has already shed some 27.6 points, or two percent, since the beginning of 2001.
The index remains 53.5 percent below its all-time high in November 1997.
Analysts said that if no concrete action is taken to rescue the sagging bourse, the index was likely to drop below the 1,300-point barrier.
The oil-rich emirate's bourse ended 2000 down 6.5 percent, in a tumultuous 12 months of trading that saw investor confidence hit rock-bottom because of a lack of economic reforms, political uncertainty and parliament-government wrangling.
Value of average daily trading, which was more than $100 million in 1997, dropped 31.6 percent in 2000 to $16.9 million from $24.7 million the previous year.
A number of decisions by the government in December, including the establishment of a secondary market and introduction of new investment tools, have failed to stimulate the KSE.
Some 87 companies are listed on the KSE with a capitalization of more than $20 billion, the second most capitalized bourse in the Arab world after the NCFEI index in Saudi Arabia. —(AFP)
© Agence France Presse 2000
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
