Insurance sector gains 1.4% at Bahrain Bourse in March

Insurance sector gains 1.4% at Bahrain Bourse in March

The monthly decline further pushed YTD-2021 decline for the benchmark deeper in the red at minus 2.1pc, also making it the worst performing market in the GCC this year.The decline during March-2021 was broad-based as all the sectoral indices declined, barring Insurance that gained 1.4pc during the month.The gain was mainly led by 4.5pc surge in shares of Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Company, whose shareholders will get a cash dividend of 15pc and bonus shares of 4.9pc.The Insurance index also remained the top performer since the start of the year with a gain of 10pc followed by the industrial index with a gain of 0.6pc.The rest of the index, meanwhile, reported YTD-2021 declines with the Services index reporting the biggest decline of 6.9pc, the Kamco report said.The Investment index witnessed the biggest monthly decline of 1.1pc followed by Services and Commercial Bank indices with declines of 0.7pc and 0.5pc, respectively.The decline in the Investment sector was mainly led by 2.1pc fall in shares of Bahrain Commercial Facilities (BCFC) followed by 1.1pc decline in shares of GFH Financial Group.Shares of BCFC declined after the company reported losses during 2020 to the tune of BD4.3m as compared with profits of BD17.1m during 2019.The