The Beirut Stock Exchange Posted Negative Performance for the Second Week Running

BLOM shares’ decline due to the ex-dividend date on Monday April 18, weighed negatively on the BSE, with the BLOM Stock Index ending the week at 1,160.63 points, tightening by 1.06% during the week. Besides BLOM shares, the real estate stock and other banks’ shares, but not enough to turn the BSI performance into positive grounds. As for the market capitalization, it decreased from $9.68B to $9.58B.

Trade this week occurred at an average daily volume of 87,167 shares worth $840,609, lower than last week’s average volume of 178,851 shares worth $1.67M.

Despite the failure of the Doha meeting, a meeting between OPEC and non-OPEC producers aimed at negotiating an oil production freeze to strengthen prices, oil prices remained on the rise during the week. The continued increase in oil prices drove regional indices higher, outperforming the Lebanese equity benchmark by the end of this week. In details, the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large-Mid-Cap Index, the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index (MSCI) and the S&P AFE 40 improved weekly by 0.98%, 0.97% and 0.95%, respectively.

Most of the regional markets ended the week in the green. Egypt’s Stock Exchange was the best performer, gaining a weekly 4.27%, followed by the stock markets of Abu Dhabi and Qatar, with 2.25% and 1.54% weekly growths, respectively. The continuous improvement in oil prices was mainly behind the positive weekly results of most Arab stock markets, mainly those of oil exporting countries. Moreover, investors were encouraged to take long positions in equity, ahead of the failure of the Doha meeting.

Besides the BSE recording the worst performance this week, Tunisia’s Stock Market and Bahrain’s bourse saw weekly declines of 0.56% and 0.10%, respectively.

On the Beirut Stock Exchange, the banking sector took 78.39% of total traded value, while the real estate sector contributed for the remaining 21.61%.

In the banking sector, BLOM shares saw a negative performance after it distributed dividends on Wednesday. The bank’s listed and Global Depository Receipts (GDR) lost 5.75% and 5.85% to $10 and $10.3, respectively. In contrast, Audi’s shares experienced a weekly gain, after it released its financial statements, showing its positive results for the first quarter of 2016. Hence Audi GDRs added 0.34% to $5.83. Similarly, Byblos listed shares witnessed a 1.78% weekly gain to $1.72.

As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), it added 0.08% over the week, to settle at 106.30 points. In fact, Byblos Preferred 08 shares inched up by 0.49% to $103.

 In the real estate sector, Solidere shares classes “A” and “B” gained 0.10% and 1.41% to end the week at $10.01 and $10.04, respectively.

On the London stock Exchange (LSE), 2 out of the 4 listed GDRs ended the week in the red. In details, BLOM GDRs decreased by 3.7% to $10.40. Similarly, the GDRs of Audi lost 0.85% to $5.80.

The performance of the Beirut Stock Exchange during the coming week depends mostly on the financial results of the listed banks for the first quarter. If the financial results revealed positive profits, the BLOM Stock Index would probably inch up during the week.

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