Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) was robust this week, with the number of shares changing hands increasing to 909,470 from 314,707 shares last week. Value traded was no exception, expanding to $7.16 million, from $2.58 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in real estate sector stocks, which accounted for 88.64% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume expanded to 181,894 shares this week, from 62,941 shares in the previous week. In addition, the average daily traded value improved to $1.43 million, from around $0.52 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 0.22% week-on-week to $6.16 billion and the Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) down by 0.28% to 558.52.

In the real estate sector, trades mostly consisted of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (88.09% of weekly traded volume), with the price of Solidere “A” rising by 1.58% on a weekly basis to $9.00 and that of Solidere “B” improving by 4.17% to $9.00. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended its week 2.25% higher at 487.03, a year-high.

In the banking sector, Byblos Bank listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (11.31% of total BSE traded volume) on a very thin turnover ratio of 0.02%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) ended Friday’s session down by 1.59% on a weekly basis at 596.28 as a result of the 9.09% contraction in the price of BLOM Bank GDRs to $3.50 and the 4.25% drop in the price of BLOM Bank listed shares to $3.83 which outweighed the 2.27% increase in the price of Byblos Bank listed shares to $0.90.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week higher at 0.563 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session.