As no improvement was denoted on the Lebanese scene, the Lebanese stock market dropped further this week, where the BLOM Stock Index (BSI) dropped by 0.49% from last week’s value to reach 1,145.11 points. As such, the Beirut Stock Exchange’s (BSE) market cap dropped from $9.52B to reach $9.47B on August 19th 2016.
Due to last week’s high cross trades, both average traded volume and average traded value fell from 1.09M shares to 65,224 shares and from $11.31M to $479,427, respectively.
Moreover, the BSI lagged behind the S&P Pan Arab Composite LargeMidCap Index, the S&P AFE40, and the Morgan Stanley (MSCI) emerging index which recorded respective weekly rises of 0.14%, 0.98%, and 0.97%.
All of the Arab bourses, except for Qatar and Dubai stock markets, witnessed negative performances during this week. The Qatari stock market index rose 3.33%, mainly due to the expectations of fund inflows as the FTSE will be promoting Qatar on September 19 from a frontier market to an emerging market. The Dubai bourse registered a weekly rise of 1.37%.
As for this week’s worst performers, Saudi Arabia stock markets recorded a drop of 1.55%, although oil prices recuperated from last week’s levels. Egypt bourse’s fall of 0.72% can be attributed to the financial results of Amer group, a real estate firm, which depicted a 60% decline y-o-y in its net income. Moreover, each of the Bahraini and Jordanian stock markets plunged by a similar 0.65%, from last week’s level.
On the BSE, the banking sector grasped 69.34% of total traded value. Audi and Byblos common stocks’ prices dropped 1.61% and 1.23% to $6.10 and $1.60, respectively. However, BLOM GDR shares’ price rose 0.40% to $10.10.
As for the preferred shares, the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI) escalated by 0.15% to 104.51 points, mainly due to the respective rises of 0.2% and 0.10% in Audi Preferred “H” and “F” shares that both converged to the same price of $101.00. Similarly, Byblos Preferred 2008 and Byblos Preferred 2009 increased 0.9% and 0.1% to $101.00 and $100.20, respectively.
In the real estate sector, which occupied 30.64% of total traded value, Solidere class “A” mounted 0.32% to $9.53, while Solidere class “B” shares fell 1.99% to $9.35.
The industrial sector witnessed some fluctuations this week. This resulted from the plunging prices of both Holcim and Ciments Blancs Bearer shares’ price by 0.28% and 10% to $14.21 and $2.70, respectively.
On the London Stock Exchange, all GDRs observed an increase, with BLOM GDR and Audi GDR prices climbing 1.00% and 0.33% to $10.10 and $6.12 by the end of the week. Also, Byblos and Solidere GDRs respectively rose 6.67% and 0.32% to $80.00 and $9.38.
As expected, trading activity declined further this week. Unless any new positive political change develops, the performance of the Lebanese Bourse will on dwindling.