The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) registered a slight improvement of 1.32% to stand at 972.70 points, by the week ending March 29. As such, the market capitalization rose from last week’s $9.36B to $9.48B, this week.
In fact, trading activity grew on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) such that an average of 98,186 shares worth $ 681,564 were traded this week, compared to an average of 48,619 shares worth $211,070 traded in the previous week.
Regionally, the S&P AFE 40, the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large Mid Cap registered weekly gains of 0.58% and 0.50% respectively, while the MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell by of 2.29% over the same week.
In the Arab World, the bourses of Tunisia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were the week’s top gainers adding 1.43%, 1.93% and 0.92% respectively. Meanwhile, the stock markets of Bahrain, Egypt and Morocco were the biggest losers, registering the respective declines of 0.88%, 0.79%, and 0.60% by the week ending March 29.
On the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), the Banking sector grasped 54.44%% of the total trading value over the week while the real estate sector and the industrial sector captured the remaining shares of 44.82% and 0.74% of total trading activity.
In the banking sector, BLOM GDR shares, BLOM Bank’s listed shares, and the GDR shares of Bank Audi registered weekly gains 3.60%, 0.76% and 0.20% to $9.79, $9.27 and $4.99 respectively.
The BPSI remained unchanged at 86.48 points.
However, On the London Stock Exchange, BLOM GDR shares recorded an increase of 2.66% to $9.65.
In the real estate sector, Solidere A and B kept on falling to reach $5.76 and $5.78 respectively during the week, until Thursday March 28, 2019; they both reversed upward, and they ended up increasing by 8.84% and 6.86% over the week to reach $6.40 and $6.39 respectively by the week ending March 29.
As for the Industrial sector, the shares of HOLCIM rose by 1.31% to $15.50.