The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) slipped by a weekly 0.23% to stand at 621.54 points on March 13, 2020 while the Market capitalization on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) also fell by 0.23% to $6.07B this week. Moreover, activity on the BSE increased this week, as shown by the Average traded volume and value retreating from last week’s 62,941 shares worth $516,117 to this week’s 181,894 shares worth $1.43B.
Following, the Lebanese government decision not to pay the $1.2B worth of Eurobonds maturing on March 09th, the International rating agency Fitch downgraded Lebanon’s Long-term Foreign Currency (LTFC) Issuer Default Rating (IDR) from ‘CC’ to ‘C’. Moreover, Standard & Poor’s lowered its foreign currency sovereign ratings on Lebanon to “SD/SD” from “CC/C” .
During the week, the major Arab stocks and bonds markets plunged following worldwide losses amid fears over the coronavirus pandemic and an oil price war. In details, on March 6 during the OPEC meeting, Saudi Arabia tried to push for additional oil production cuts to compensate for the slump in demand for oil due to the coronavirus. However, Russia not only rejected the move but also decided to no longer abide by the previous cuts. Following this decision, Saudi Arabia and others decided to go all in. Saudi Aramco not only announced that it would increase its crude supplies to the market from 9.7m bpd in January 2020 to 12.3m bpd in April, but also said it received instructions to increase its maximum sustainable oil output capacity to 13M bpd. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), meanwhile, promised to raise its output to 4m bpd in April, and speed up its production capacity development efforts to pass the 5m bpd threshold in the future.
As a result, Brent crude, the global benchmark, plunged 24% to close at $33.36 a barrel and US oil prices dropped by 34% to a four year low of $27.34 a barrel.
Moreover, the regional indices, MSCI Emerging Markets Index, S&P AFE 40 and the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large Mid Cap Index witnessed significant drops by 15.03%, 14.96% and 14.80%, respectively.
In terms of market performers, most of the MENA bourses were in red this week. In details, the bourses of Dubai , Saudi Arabia and Qatar recorded the weekly drops of 17.41%, 14.87% and 11.59%, respectively.
On the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), the real estate sector continued to grasp the highest of the total trading value at 98.55%, while the banking and industrial sectors grasped the remaining share of 1.24% and 0.20%, respectively.
In the real estate sector, Solidere “A” and Solidere “B” shares increased weekly by 1.58% and 4.17%to stand at $9, each.
The most significant price decreases recorded among Banks’ traded shares over the week were:
Meanwhile, Byblos Banks Listed shares rose weekly by 2.27% to $0.90.
As for the Blom Preferred shares Index (BPSI), it remained unchanged and ended the week at 66.67 points.
On the London Stock Exchange, BLOM Bank’s GDR shares recorded a weekly increase by 17.06% to end the week at $1.99.