The Lebanese Bourse ended this Week in the Red
On the Beirut Stock Exchange, the BLOM Stock Index (BSI) fell by 0.72% during the week to 1,153.09 points. The average traded volume increased from last week’s 185,386 shares worth $2,769,701 to 334,556 shares worth $2,245,246. Over the past week, the market capitalization on the Beirut Stock Exchange decreased from $9.59B to $9.52B.
Contrarily to the Lebanese Bourse, the markets in the region have all remarkably increased along with their regional peers the S&P Pan Arab Composite Large-Mid-Cap Index, the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index (MSCI) and the S&P AFE 40 Index which gained 6.66%, 4.90% and 7.22%, respectively.
All Arab bourses recovered their losses and ended the week in the green mostly on account of a lift in oil prices by 7% over the week and the recovery of global equity markets. The most pronounced increases were registered by Dubai stock exchange which gained 8.97%, Qatar’s bourse which shed 8.01%, and Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange which fell by 7.62%.
On the Beirut Stock Exchange, the banking sector accounted for 92.7% of the week’s traded value while 7% was grasped by the real estate sector and a minor 0.3% was taken by the industrial sector.
In the banking sector, Audi GDRs gained 1.67% to $6.10. As for the listed shares of Bank Audi and Bank of Beirut, they fell by a weekly 0.16% and 3.19% to end the week at $6.08 and $18.20, respectively. Also, BLOM GDRs ticked down by 0.52% to $9.65.
In the real estate sector, Solidere A and B shares lost 3.96% and 2.98% to close at $10.19 and $10.10, respectively.
In the industrial sector, HOLCIM shares decreased by 0.55% to $14.42.
Looking ahead, the Lebanese stock market will follow the political progress made with regards to the presidential election and the upcoming BLOM and Audi financial releases.
