It seems that the political deadlock is weighing heavily on investor confidence and appears to have overshadowed the release of the banks’ positive results for the first half of the year.
The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) declined by 0.73% to reach 1,035.32 points by the week ending August 3th. The market capitalization declined from last week’s $10.14B to $10.06B this week.
On average, 76,717 shares worth $ 706,797 were traded on the BSE this past week compared to 53,857 shares worth $627,375 last week.
The regional indices, MSCI Emerging Markets Index and the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large Mid Cap Index declined by 1.99% and 0.15% respectively. However, the S&P AFE 40 recorded an uptick of 0.47% by August 3th.
On a regional level, the top performers over the week were the bourses of Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia which increased by 3.99%, 3.89%, and 1.89%, respectively. However, the stock exchanges of KSA , Bahrain and Abu Dhabi lost weekly 1.36% , 1.37% and 0.68%, respectively.
On the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), the banking sector grasped 51.36% of the total trading value, while the real estate and industrial sectors grasped the other 47.73% and 0.91%, respectively.
In the banking sector, Audi listed shares increased by 0.59% to end the week at $5.11. Meanwhile, Audi GDR ,Blom GDR and Blom listed share prices dropped by 2.45% , 0.97% and 0.59% to end the week at $5.18, $10.2 and $10.1, respectively.
On the London Stock Exchange, BLOM Bank’s GDR shares remained unchanged at $10.20 so did the GDRs of Bank Audi and Byblos which ended the week at $5.20 and $75.00.
As for the Blom Preferred shares Index (BPSI), it recorded an uptick of 0.30% to end the week at 93.65 points. In details, the downtick is attributed to the:
However , Bank of Beirut Pref. H recorded a loss of 0.32% to $25.07
In the real estate sector, Solidere A and B shares decreased by 2.83% and 7.05% to stand at $7.22 and $6.99 respectively.
Meanwhile, in the industrial sector, HOLCIM’s listed shares increased by 0.44% to end the week at $16.
The Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) ‘s performance was subdued over the past week as the political deadlock around the government’s formation continues.