Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) was subdued this week, with the number of shares changing hands dropping to 314,707, from 561,264 shares last week. Value traded was no exception, contracting to $2.58 million, from $4.02 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in real estate sector stocks, which accounted for 93.96% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume fell to 62,941 shares this week, from 112,253 shares in the previous week. In addition, the average daily traded value dropped to $0.52 million, from around $0.80 million a week earlier.

Three gaining and two heavily weighted losing stocks were screened throughout the week, dragging the BSE’s market capitalization down by 1.05% week-on-week to $6.17 billion and the Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) down by 1.32% to 560.08.

In the real estate sector, trades solely consisted of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (93.96% of weekly traded volume), with the price of Solidere “A” rising by 3.14% on a weekly basis to $8.86 and that of Solidere “B” improving by 1.53% to $8.64. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended its week 2.18% higher at 476.32.

In the banking sector, Byblos Bank listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (3.39% of total BSE traded volume) on a very thin turnover ratio of 0.002%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) ended Friday’s session down by 3.05% on a weekly basis at 605.92 as a result of the 12.63% contraction in the price of Bank Audi listed shares to $1.66 and the 12.00% drop in the price of Byblos Bank listed shares to $0.88 which outweighed the 28.33% increase in the price of BLOM Bank GDRs to $3.85.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week higher at 0.554 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session.