Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) grew much stronger this week, with the number of shares changing hands skyrocketing to 4,902,558 shares from 257,280 shares last week. Value traded was no exception, rising to $17.93 million, from $2.75 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in banking sector stocks, which accounted for 90.90% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume increased to 980,512 shares this week, from 85,760 shares in the previous week. In addition, the average daily traded value rose to $3.59 million, from around $0.92 million a week earlier.

Six losing and three gaining stocks were screened throughout the week, dragging the BSE’s market capitalization down by 4.05% week-on-week to just below $5.93 billion and the Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) down by 4.39% to 536.46.

In the real estate sector, trades consisted mainly of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (9.07% of weekly traded volume), with the prices of Solidere “A” and “B” dropping by 2.13% and 3.25% respectively to $10.11 each. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended its week 1.98% lower week-on-week at 541.88.

In the banking sector, BLOM Bank listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (81.34% of total BSE traded volume) on a turnover ratio of 1.85%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) ended Friday’s session down by 6.02% on a weekly basis at an all-time low of 523.64 as a result of the 16.67% drop in the price of Bank Audi listed shares to $1.00 coupled with the 14.67% contraction in the price of Byblos Bank listed shares to $0.64 outweighing the 0.30% rise in the price of BLOM Bank listed shares to $3.29. It is worth highlighting that the significant drop in the price of Audi shares comes in the wake of its announcement that talks with FADB over the sale of its Egyptian subsidiary have been halted.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week almost flat at 0.607 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session.