Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) waned this week, with the number of shares changing hands dropping to 193,507, from 675,696 shares last week. Value traded was no exception, contracting to $1.65 million, from $4.89 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in real estate sector stocks, which accounted for 76.90% of weekly traded volume

The average daily traded volume receded to 38,701 shares this week, from 135,139 shares in the previous week. In addition, the average daily traded value contracted to $0.33 million, from around $0.98 million a week earlier.

Four losing and two heavily weighed gaining stocks were screened throughout the week, lifting the BSE’s market capitalization up by 0.57% week-on-week to $6.96 billion and the Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) higher by 0.81% to 642.84.

In the real estate sector, trades consisted solely of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (76.90% of weekly traded volume), with the price of Solidere “A” improving by 2.41% on a weekly basis to $8.51 whilst that of Solidere “B” dropping by 2.52% to $8.50. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended its week 0.35% higher at 465.31.

In the banking sector, Bank Audi listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (16.87% 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 up by 1.01% on a weekly basis to 750.10 as a result of the 8.47% weekly increase in the price of heavy market cap weighted Bank Audi Listed shares to $2.05, which outweighed the 7.12% and 2.83% contractions in the prices of the BLOM Bank GDR and the Bank Audi GDR to $3 and $2.06 respectively.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week higher at 0.570 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session.