Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) was mixed this week with the number of shares changing hands increasing to 1,190,462 shares from 921,344 shares last week. Value traded, on the other hand, dropped to $5.09 million this week, from $8.95 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in banking sector stocks, which accounted for 80.45% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume rose to 238,092 shares this week, from 184,269 shares in the previous week. On the other hand, the average daily traded value contracted to $1.02 million, from around $1.79 million a week earlier.

Eight weekly gaining and one losing stock were screened this week, lifting the BSE’s market capitalization up by 1.27% week-on-week to around $6.26 billion. The Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) inched upwards by 1.89% week-on-week to 591.86.

In the real estate sector, trades mainly consisted of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (18.89% of weekly traded volume), with the price of Solidere “A” rising by 0.88% week-on-week to $16.11 with that of Solidere “B” improving by 4.57% to $16.47. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended Friday’s session 2.25% higher on a weekly basis at 851.50, bearing in mind that it attained a year-high of 857.06 on Thursday.

In the banking sector, Bank Audi listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (39.20% of total BSE traded volume) with a very thin turnover ratio of 0.08%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) closed its week up by 1.45% at 411.43, noting that it reached its all-time low of 402.49 on Monday. The weekly increase in the CLFI owes to the 10.00% hike in the price of Bank Audi listed shares to $1.21 coupled with the 5.45% rise in the price of Bank Audi GDRs to $1.16 and the 1.50% expansion in the price of BLOM Bank GDRs to $2.03 outweighing the 10.00% drop in the price of BLOM Bank Listed shares to $1.80.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week up at 1.021 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session compared to 0.975 in the previous week.