Positive Political Developments Boosted the lebanese Bourse This week

The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) rose by 0.29% to reach   962.64 points over the last week. The market capitalization increased from $9.35B, last week, to $9.38B this week. On average 74,399 shares worth 456,210 were traded on the BSE in the last week ending December 14 compared to 46,374  shares worth 341,004 traded in the week ending  December 7.

This minor improvement and specifically the increase in solidere shares can be linked to the positive political developments during the week as the president Michel Aoun intervened to attempt to broker a deal for the formation of a new government and the Prime Minister Saad Hariri declared from London that we are close to a new government being formed.

Regionally, during the past week, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large Mid Cap Index and the S&P AFE 40 rose by 0.67%, 0.27% and 0.09% respectively. In the Arab world, the bourses of Egypt, Dubai and Saudi Arabia increased by 4.92%, 0.73% and 0.83% respectively. While the largest loosers in the Middle East this week were the bourses of Tunisia, Kuwait & Qatar; they witnessed respective declines of 1.32%, 0.88% and 1.34%.

On the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), the banking sector grasped 44.18 % of the total trading value, while the real estate and retail sectors captured the remaining 50.92% and 4.90%, respectively.

In the banking sector, the GDR shares of BLOM Bank rose by 0.432%; while on the contrary, Audi GDR shares and Byblos listed shares fell by 7.22% and 2.84% to $4.37 and $1.37 respectively.

In the real estate sector, Solidere A and B shares witnessed an increase of 6.35% and 6.10% during the past week to stand at $6.70 and $6.78, respectively. In the Retail sector, the shares of HOLCIM Liban recorded a downtick of 3.06% to stand at $15.51.

As for the BLOM Preferred shares Index (BPSI), it decreased by 0.55% to 86.39 points on the back of the decrease in  Byblos Preferred 08 and Byblos Preferred 09 by 2.78% to reach $70  that outpaced the increase in Bemo preferred 2013 by 0.21% to $96.7 .

On the London Stock Exchange, no changes were recorded on the GDR shares of BLOM Bank, and Byblos which steadied at $9.25, and $77 respectively, while Audi GDR shares witnessed a decrease of 0.21% to reach $4.70.

If maintained, the positive political spin of last week and the actual formation of a new government can open the door to more improvement on the stock market in the upcoming weeks.

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