The BLOM Stock Index (BSI) witnessed frail activity over the week, coinciding with the ongoing Holy month of Ramadan coupled with some political turbulence, as riots took place next to the downtown area on Thursday. The BSI ended this week losing 0.62% to 1,183.00 points. The average traded volume decreased to 52,535 shares worth $754,167 from last week’s 98,362 shares worth $1.45M. Accordingly, the market capitalization narrowed, over the week, from $10.02B to $9.96B.
The BSI was outperformed by the S&P AFE 40 Index, which dropped 0.29% over the week, and the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large-Mid-Cap Index, which gained 0.08%, over the same period. However the BSI managed to outpace the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index (MSCI) which lost a weekly 5.32%, mainly on the back of the Chinese stock market crash. Notably, the Chinese stock market has lost $3.9T, since June 12, 2015.
On the regional front, all Bourses except Saudi Arabia, experienced poor performance partially on the back of the ongoing Holy month of Ramadan and the 4.32% fall in the price of international oil during the week. The biggest loser over the week was the Egyptian Bourse which lost 6.76%. This possibly came on the back of the Egyptian pound reverting back to its depreciating trend coupled with extremist groups unsettling the overall situation in Egypt. Qatari and Dubai Bourse followed, with respective falls of 1.98% and 1.75%, over the week.
The only stock market that gained was Saudi Arabia’s, increasing over the week by 1.59%. It seems that foreign inflows, since the country opened its doors to outside investment, are finally showing some signs of progress in the stock market.
Back to the Beirut Stock Exchange, the banking sector took 74.45% of total traded value, where the listed shares of BLOM Bank and Audi Bank declined by 0.92% and 3.53% to close the week at $9.66 and $6.01, respectively. In addition, BLOM GDR shares and Byblos listed shares fell weekly by 0.10% and 0.62% to respective quotes of $10.00 and $1.61.
As for preferred shares, they fared better than common shares as the BLOM Preferred Shares Index (BPSI) went up by 0.03% to 104.73 points. In details, Bank Audi preferred shares class “F” gained 0.10% to close the week at $100.60, while class “G” shares dropped weekly by 0.30% to $100.20. In addition, Bank of Beirut preferred shares class “I” increased by a weekly 0.19% to $25.50 while Bemo preferred shares 2013 down ticked by 0.20% to end the week at $101.00.
The real estate sector experienced an ambiguous performance, as Solidere shares class “A”up ticked by 1.04% to close the week at $11.61 while its class “B” shares dropped by a weekly 0.44% to $11.31
In the industrial sector, HOLCIM shares downturned by 1.97% to $14.90 on the 10th of July.
The Beirut Stock Exchange is expected to show an increased activity after the month of Ramadan that will end next week. Nevertheless, the political developments remain the main barometer of the stock market performance.