The BSI Up This Week Mainly due to the Rise in Solidere A and B Shares.

The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) compiled by BLOMInvest Bank on a daily basis rose by 1.41% over the week ending September 18, 2020 to reach 616.46 and the Market capitalization on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) increased by 1.40% to reach $6.32B on September 18. Moreover, the average volume

and value of trades this week totaled 834,865 shares worth $1.20M traded, compared to 122,580 shares worth $1.37M traded last week.

Regionally, the major Arab markets witnessed a positive activity this week. In details, the S&P AFE 40 , S&P Pan Arab Composite Large Mid Cap Index and the MSCI Emerging Markets Index rose weekly by 1.63%, 1.67% and 1.98%, respectively. In the Arab World, the bourses of Bahrain, KSA and Kuwait were the week’s top gainers adding 3.28%, 2.98% and 2.49%, respectively. Meanwhile the bourses of Egypt and Dubai were the week’s top losers retreating by 0.19% and 0.18%, respectively.

On the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), Lebanon’s banking sector grasped the lion’s share of the BSE’s trading value with a stake of 50.9%. The real estate sector grasped the remaining share of 49.10%. The most noteworthy trades throughout the week included:

• • Solidere “A” shares, which rose by a weekly 5.41% to $15.97/share.
  • Solidere “B” shares increased by 4.02% to $15.77.
  • Byblos Bank Listed shares dropped by 10% to $0.36.
  • Audi Bank Listed Shares rose by 1% to $1.01.
  • Audi GDR shares dropped by 5% to $0.95
  • Blom GDR shares decreased by 0.36% to $2.80

As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), it recorded a significant drop by 18.20% to reach 50.16 points, on the back of a:

• • 22% drop in the price of Byblos Preferred H to $69.90
  • 90% drop in Audi Pref J to $42.04.
  • 84% slump in Byblos Preferred 08 to $39.99
  • 39% slump in Byblos Preferred 09 to $48.85

On the London Stock Exchange, Audi and BLOM GDR shares increased weekly by 11.11% and 3.12% to $0.40 and $1.65, respectively.

The government formation didn’t happen this week as expected since political leaders are still struggling to find a solution for the disputes. As such the increase in Blom Index can be mainly attributed to the rise in Solidere A and B shares due to strong activities in the real estate markets while major banks shares were in red this week .In fact, investing in real estate remains perhaps the safest haven to depositors of the Lebanese banking system.