The Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) ended the week with a 0.52% drop as the real estate stocks’ negative performance dragged down the index. The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) fell to stand at 1,200.72 points with the market capitalization dropping from $10.15B last week to $10.10B this week.
The average traded volume and value on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) were down from 174,859 and $1.25M on January 13th, 2017 to 132,287 and $1.21M at the end of this week, respectively.
Over the same period, the BSI was outperformed by the S&P Pan Arab Composite LargeMidCap and the S&P AFE40 which respectively rose by 0.08% and 0.61%. However, the MSCI Emerging lost only 0.23%.
Regionally, the Kuwaiti and Qatari bourses were the biggest gainers of the week with respective rises of 4.12% and 2.17%. Moreover, Abu Dhabi’s stock index registered a 0.50% uprise in the past week. Nonetheless, the Arab markets that dropped over the past week were the bourses of Egypt and Amman with respective losses of 3.15% and 1.12%.
The banking sector accounted for 72.04% of the traded value during the period, where BLOM Bank’s listed shares and Audi GDRs grew by 1.54% and 3.51% over the past two weeks to reach $11.24 and $6.78, respectively. Bank Audi’s listed shares dropped by 1.80% to settle at $6.54.
As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), tracking the BSE’s preferred shares’ performance, it witnessed no change during this week, as no preferred shares’ prices changed during the week.
As for the real estate sector, grasping 26.85% of total traded value, Solidere A and B shares were the worst performers over the past week and dropped by 3.75% and 2.41% to settle at the prices of $9.75 and $9.73, respectively.
On the London Stock Exchange (LSE), BLOM and Audi’s GDR shares rose 0.45% and 1.49% to close at $11.25 and $6.80, respectively. However, Solidere and Byblos GDR shares respectively fell by 1.52% and 3.80% to stand at $9.75 and $76.
The awaited release of the Lebanese banks’ financial for the year 2016 is expected to positively affect the BSI in the upcoming weeks.