Political talks between the different Lebanese parties that started during the previous week continued to affect positively. The Lebanese stock market, especially the real estate sector. As a result, the BLOM Stock Index (BSI) gained 0.96% to end the week at 1,213.42 points, however at a lower average traded volume of 45,483 shares worth $461,129, compared to 148,748 shares worth $1.02M last week. Market capitalization broadened by $97.32M to $10.22B.
The BSI outperformed the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index (MSCI), the S&P AFE 40 Index, and the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large MidCap Index, all of which posted gains of 0.89%, 0.40% and 0.03%, respectively.
As for Arab bourses, the best performers were Tunisia, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi with respective weekly gains of 2.58%, 1.01% and 0.37%.
In contrast, the worst performing Arab stock market was the Egyptian bourse dropping 1.55% since last week as Ezz Steel’s biggest shareholder, Ahmed Ezz, was involved in a legal dispute. Muscat’s and Kuwait’s financial markets followed with respective weekly declines of 1.19% and 0.59%.
Regarding the BSE, the real estate sector accounted for 70.35% of overall traded value while the 27.93% were contributed by the banking sector and the remaining 1.72% by the industrial sector.
In the banking sector, BLOM listed shares gained 0.55% to end the week at $9.10. Similarly, Audi GDR and listed shares added 7.25% and 2.43% to close at $7.25 and $6.75, respectively. In contrast, BLOM’s GDR shares declined 0.50% to end the week at $9.86.
As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), it remained at 106.17 points, as Byblos Preferred 2009 shares traded with no change in price.
In the real estate sector, Solidere “A” shares gained a weekly 0.36% to $11.26, while Solidere “B” shares lost 0.36% to $11.15.
In the industrial sector, HOLCIM shares lost 3.23% to $15.
The market is expected to stay on its uptrend as political and security environment stabilizes.