Investors Are More Risk Averse Amid Uprising Tensions

The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) compiled by BLOMInvest Bank on a daily basis dropped weekly by 3.07% to reach 1,722.138 on October 20, 2023 down from 1,776.596 on October 13, 2023. No doubt, negatively affected by the destabilizing developments in Palestine. The market capitalization on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) decreased weekly from $18.21B to $17.65B. The average volume and value of trades also totaled 24,475 shares worth $847,109 compared to 4,800 shares worth $364,567 last week.

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 99.42%, while the banking sector grasped the remaining 0.58%.  The most noteworthy trades throughout the mentioned period included:

• Solidere (A) shares rose by 0.53% to settle at $75.45/ share
• Solidere (B) shares contracted by 5.16% to settle at $72.65/ share
• Blom GDR shares dropped by 14% to settle at $2.15/ share
• Audi Listed shares dropped by 13.64% to settle at $1.9/ share
• Byblos Listed shares dropped by 5% to stand at $0.76/ share

As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), it remained constant at 39.62 by October 20, 2023.

Uncertainty and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East pushed the global equity markets down this week as investors seek safer assets such as Gold and T-bills. As such, the Arab stock market contracted this week as S&P Pan Arab and MSCI dropped respectively by 0.78% and 1.43% to stand at 881.69 and 943.12 by the end of this week. Moreover, the bourse of Egypt and Saudi Arabia expanded respectively by 8.07% and 0.65% respectively meanwhile the bourse of UAE and Qatar contracted respectively by 7.69% and 3.15% by October 20, 2023.

Same for the Western markets, S&P 500 and NASDAQ decreasing respectively by 1.65% and 2.86% weekly to stand at 4,278 and 13,186.18 points by October 20, compared to the previous week. Elsewhere, DAX dropped by 2.76% to reach 14,860.67 on Friday October 20, 2023 while CAC 40 declined by 2.84% to 1,362.21 down from last week 1,362.21 points. Furthermore, FTSE 100 decreased by 2.19% to stand at 7,437.03 points by the end of this week while Japan market recorded a loss of 3.27% on a weekly basis to settle at 31,259.36 up from 32,315.99 in the previous week.