BLOM Stock Index falling alongside Solidère Prices

This week, the BLOM Stock Index (BSI) compiled by BLOMInvest Bank on a daily basis recorded a contraction of 2.14% to reach 1,299.330 on December 2^nd, 2022. The market capitalization on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) dropped weekly from $13.60B to $13.32B. The average volume and value of trades also totaled 117,884 shares worth $4,521,606 compared to 53,890 shares worth $2,347,619 last week, with the largest trades taking place on December 2^nd, 2022.

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 98.68%, while the banking sector and the industrial sector grasped the remaining of 1.19% and 0.13%, respectively. The most noteworthy trades throughout the mentioned period included:

• Solidere (A) shares dropped by 4% to settle at $53.95/share
• Solidere (B) shares dropped by 0.91% to settle at $54.25/share
• HOLCIM shares dropped by 3.13% to settle at $31/share
• BLOM GDR dropped by 7.14% to settle at $2.6/share
• Audi GDR dropped by 3.36% to settle at $1.44/share
• Audi Listed increased by 0.71% to settle at $1.42/ share

As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), it remained constant at 41.01 by December 2, 2022.

In the Arab region, major Arab bourses recorded overall a better performance this week. The MSCI index increased remarkably by 3.46%; whereas the S&P Pan Arab index slightly decreased by 0.16%, compared to last week. Moreover, Bourse of Egypt and Morocco added 6.73% and 1.93% respectively, by the end of this week. Meanwhile, the bourse of Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Kuwait dropped by 1.06%, 0.57% and 0.29% respectively by the end of this week.

The US equity market recorded a positive momentum this week amid market expectations regarding slow interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve. As such, S&P 500 and NASDAQ respectively rose by 1.22% and 1.75% on a weekly basis to stand at 4,076.57 and 11,482.45 by Friday December 2^nd, 2022. The investors held an optimistic sense this week with risk appetite on the rise due to solid performance and a rally in bonds despite a cooler labor market.

In Europe, equity market posted an overall positive record by the end of week, on December 2nd, 2022. In fact, CAC 40 registered an uptick of 0.4% to stand at 6739.48, whereas DAX Germany slightly fell by 0.03% to stand at 14,522.61. Noting that in the Euro area, the unemployment rate fell to a record low of 6.5% in October (vs. 6.6% expected). In the same token, the FTSE 100 increased by 0.82% from 7,482.87 to 7544.60 by Friday. As for Japan, NIKKEI index recorded a weekly downturn of 1.79% to end up the week at 27,777.9.