Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) was lethargic this week in the absence of any specific block trades, with the number of shares changing hands plunging to 133,202 shares, compared to 4,521,644 shares last week. Concurrently, value traded sank to $0.48 million this week, from $32.31 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in real estate sector stocks, which accounted for 51.03% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume plummeted to 26,640 shares this week, from 904,329 shares in the previous week. Concurrently, the average daily traded value narrowed to around $0.10 million, from $6.46 million a week earlier.

Two gaining and two losing stocks were spotted throughout the week, lifting the BSE’s market capitalization up by 0.25% week-on-week to $7.74 billion and the Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) higher by 0.31% to 726.37.

In the real estate sector, trades solely consisted of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (51.03% of weekly traded volume), with the price of Solidere “A” shedding 1.07% on a weekly basis to $5.56 and that of Solidere “B” increasing by 4.37% to $5.49. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended its week 0.80% higher at 323.91.

In the banking sector, Byblos Bank listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (41.75% of total BSE traded volume) on a thin turnover ratio of 0.01%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) ended Friday’s session 0.20% higher week-on-week at 981.48 as a result of the 2.78% weekly rise in the price of Bank Audi listed shares to $3.70, which outweighed the 5.88% drop in the price of BLOM Bank GDRs to $6.40.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks reversed its downturn to settle higher at 0.535x based on the closing prices of Friday’s session.