The Lebanese Bourse Ended the Past 2 Weeks in the Red

The Lebanese bourse weakened during the past 2 weeks, with the BLOM Stock Index (BSI) dropping 0.38%, to 1,145.79 points. Nevertheless, the volume of traded shares grew over the same period, as the average traded volume and value went up from 44,794 shares worth $517,660 to 1.34M shares worth $12.54M. As for the market capitalization, it narrowed by $163.91M to $9.52B.

Globally, the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index (MSCI), the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large-Mid-Cap Index and the S&P AFE 40 Index recorded respective losses of 3.61%, 0.86%, and 0.29%, respectively, on a 2-week basis.

Abu Dhabi, Muscat and Egypt were the best performers regionally, increasing by 0.91%, 0.81%, and 0.59%, respectively, from Friday 18th of September’s level.

On the other hand, the bourses of Saudi Arabia, Tunis, and Amman were the worst performers, dropping by 1.72%, 1.04%, and 0.63%, respectively, over the past 2 week. Higher oil prices failed to boost the  stock markets in the GCC, especially after Standard & Poor’s stated that the strength in Gulf banks’ earnings in the first half of this year was unlikely to persist.

Back to the Beirut Stock Exchange, the banking sector captured 98.37% of the total traded value during the week while the real estate sector and the industrial sector grasped the remaining 1.63% and 0.01%, respectively. In the banking sector, the listed shares of BLOM and that of Audi gained 0.21% and 4.01% to end the week at $9.45 and $5.97, respectively. Byblos listed shares and BLOM GDR shares dropped 1.23% and 0.41% to $1.60 and $9.66, respectively.

In the real-estate sector, Solidere shares classes “A” and “B” decreased by 4.73% and 6.83% to $10.07 and $10.09, respectively.

In the industrial sector, Ciments Blancs Bearer shares increased by 14.29%, from $3.50 recorded 2 weeks earlier,  to settle at $4.

On a 2-week basis, the preferred shares fared better than the common shares, as shown by the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI) which gained 0.30%, to settle at 105.29 points. In details, BLOM preferred shares 2011, Byblos preferred shares 2008 and 2009 increased by 0.59%, 0.30%, and 0.20% to $10.16, $101, and $100.90, respectively. Audi preferred shares classes “F” and “H” added 0.10% and 0.30% to $100.70 and $101, respectively. Similarly, Bank of Beirut preferred shares classes “I” and “H” each gained 0.97% to settle at the same price of $26, respectively.

During the coming weeks, the Lebanese Bourse will keep on mirroring investors’ sentiment regarding the country’s developments on the economic and political scenes.

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