As we expected last week, the banks’ positive earnings for the fourth quarter of 2014 continued to uplift the Lebanese stock market. The Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) registered a solid performance across the past week as the BLOM Stock Index (BSI) recorded a 1.618% weekly upturn to close at 1,204.63 points. The average traded volume and value both declined in the past week, falling from 258,178 and 3.07M last week to 138,537 and 1.08M this week. The market capitalization rose from $9.95B last Friday to $10.14B this Friday.
The BSI outperformed the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index (MSCI) which lost 1.12% during the week to close at 971.19 points. However, the S&P AFE Index and the S&P 40 Pan Arab Composite Large Midcap Index, beat the BSI in the past week as they recorded respective gains of 0.42% and 0.46% to stand at 64.08 points and 971.19 points, respectively.
During the past week, Bank of Beirut listed 3,000,000 new preferred shares, series J and Bank Audi turned 722,264 nominal shares into GDR shares.
As for Arab bourses, the best performers were Tunisia with a 0.89% weekly gain, Saudi Arabia with a 0.84% increase and Bahrain with a 0.80% uptick.
Meanwhile, the worst performing Arab stock markets were Egypt with a 2.19% drop, Amman with a 1.56% downturn and Muscat with a 0.63% slip.
Back on the BSE, the banking sector and the industrial sector accounted for 67% of overall traded value while the remaining 33% were contributed by the real estate sector.
In the banking sector, BLOM’s listed shares added 1.12% to close at $9.05 while the bank’s GDR shares shed 0.50% to reach $9.91. Audi’s GDR and listed shares also gained 1.45% and 1.25% to close at $7.00 and $6.50, respectively. Byblos’s listed shares rose by a weekly 0.60% to reach $1.69.
As for the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI), it increased by 0.13% to end the week at 106.04 points, lifted by the performance of Audi’s preferred G shares which registered a weekly 1.48% uptick to $103.00.
In the real estate sector, Solidere shares “A” and “B” posted solid performances, gaining 3.64% to $11.40 and 2.29% to $11.18, respectively.
In the industrial sector, HOLCIM shares gained a weekly 3.26% to settle at $15.50.
The effect of the banks’ positive earnings for the last quarter of 2014 might fade away in the coming weeks. However, the deployment of security forces across the country is expected to generate positive vibes on the Beirut Stock Exchange for the period ahead.