Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) slowed down this week with the number of shares changing hands contracting to 427,754 shares from 1,190,462 shares last week. Similarly, value traded dropped to $5.07 million this week, from $5.09 million a week before. Trades were mainly concentrated in real estate stocks, which accounted for 73.63% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume fell to 85,551 shares this week, from 238,092 shares in the previous week. Moreover, the average daily traded value contracted to $1.01 million, from around $1.02 million a week earlier.

Two weekly heavily market weighted gaining and three losing stocks were screened this week, lifting the BSE’s market capitalization up by 0.68% week-on-week to around $6.30 billion. The Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) inched upwards by 0.82% week-on-week to 596.72.

In the real estate sector, trades mainly consisted of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (71.28% of weekly traded volume), with the price of Solidere “A” rising by 0.87% week-on-week to $16.25 while that of Solidere “B” dropped by 1.58% to $16.21. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended Friday’s session 0.26% higher on a weekly basis at 853.74.

In the banking sector, Byblos Bank listed shares amassed the highest concentration of trades (18.85% of total BSE traded volume) with a very thin turnover ratio of 0.01%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) closed its week up by 1.60% at 418.00. The weekly increase in the CLFI owes to the 13.89% hike in the price of BLOM Bank Listed shares to $2.05 which outweighed the 12.07% drop in the price of Bank Audi GDRs to $1.02 and the 1.48% contraction in the price of BLOM Bank GDRs to $2.00.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week down at 1.014 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session compared to 1.021 in the previous week.