Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) was shy this week, with the number of shares changing hands decreasing to 496,871 from 909,470 shares last week amid the lockdown imposed by the government to curb the outbreak of the Coronavirus. Value traded was no exception, dwindling to $2.53 million, from $7.16 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in banking sector stocks, which accounted for 53.74% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume dropped to 124,218 shares this week, from 181,894 shares in the previous week. In addition, the average daily traded value regressed to $0.63 million, from around $1.43 million a week earlier.

Five losing and no gaining stocks were screened throughout the week, dragging the BSE’s market capitalization down by 3.46% week-on-week to $5.94 billion and the Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) down by 4.35% to 534.20, bearing in mind that the latter hit an all-time low of 530.67 on Thursday.

In the real estate sector, trades mostly consisted of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (45.86% of weekly traded volume), with the prices of Solidere “A” & Solidere “B” both dropping by 0.11% to $8.99. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended its week 0.18% lower at 486.18.

In the banking sector, Bank Audi listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (40.65% of total BSE traded volume) on a very thin turnover ratio of 0.05%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) ended Friday’s session down by 6.65% on a weekly basis at 556.61, an all-time low, as a result of the 9.64% contraction in the price of Bank Audi listed shares to $1.50 and the 17.75% drop in the price of BLOM Bank listed shares to $3.15.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week higher at 0.567 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session.