The BLOM Stock Continues its rise to 909.72 points

The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) compiled by BLOMInvest Bank on a daily basis increased by 2.59% since April 16, 2021 to reach 909.72 on April 23,2021. The Market capitalization on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) increased from $9.08B to $9.32B on April 23, 2021. Moreover, the average volume and value of trades during the week ending April 23, 2021 totaled 64,183 shares worth $1,219,383 compared to 86,307 worth $1,051,759 during last week.

Regionally, the major Arab markets witnessed improving performance this week. In details, the S&P AFE 40 Composite index, and the S&P Pan Arab index both increased weekly by 0.59%, 1.07%. Also the MSCI index increased by 0.03%. In the Arab World, the bourse of Egypt, KSA, and Qatar were the top gainers this week, they increased by 5.21%, 2.52%, and 2.21%, respectively. In details, KSA stock market has boosted this week amid the financial results of their banks that showed a good performance in first quarter of 2021. In contrast, the bourse of Tunisia was the worst performers for this week declining by 1.51%. The Tunisian government is dealing with high amount of national debts and they need to launch a new program with the IMF in order to improve their economy.

On the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), the real estate sector grasped the lion’s share of the BSE’s trading value with a stake of 95.51%, while the banking grasped 4.49%. The most noteworthy trades throughout the mentioned period included:

• BLOM GDR shares increased by 16.36% to $3.84/share
• Byblos (C) shares added 4.94% to $0.85/share
• AUDI Listed shares increased by 4.40% to $2.50/share
• Audi (GDR) went up by 2.78% to $1.85/share
• Byblos Preferred (09) decreased by 2.65% to $38.50/share
• Solidere (A) shares increased by 3.08% to $24.74/share
• Solidere (B) shares increased by 2% to $24.44/share
• Holcim shares decreased by 3.05% to $15.40/share

As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), it remained unchanged this week at 45.22 points.

The financial crisis in Lebanon is certainly affecting the banking sector. However, as it showed on Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE), the prices of shares of the banks are increasing. Taking Audi bank and Blom bank as an example, we can notice that their prices have increased by 118% and 74%, respectively since the beginning of the year. This increase in the prices of their shares cannot be related to fundamentals, especially that the financial results of most of banks have witnessed a huge reduction in earnings compared to previous years.