Activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) was sluggish for another consecutive week amid the “Adha Holidays” with the number of shares changing hands dropping to 60,917 shares from 182,210 shares in the week before and value traded decreasing to $2.02 million compared to $10.58 million a week earlier. Trades were mainly concentrated in real estate stocks, which accounted for 51.87% of weekly traded volume.

The average daily traded volume fell to 20,306 shares this week, from 36,442 shares in the week before, with the average daily traded value also decreasing to $0.67 million, from around $2.12 million a week earlier.

Two losing and two gaining stocks were screened this week, dragging the BSE’s market capitalization down by 0.08% week-on-week to around $14.68 billion and the Credit Libanais Aggregate Stock Index (“CLASI”) by 0.09% to 1,567.07.

In the real estate sector, trades solely consisted of Solidere “A” and “B” shares (51.87% of weekly traded volume), with the price of Solidere “A” rising by 0.24% week-on-week to $62.20 and that of Solidere “B” increasing by 0.64% to $63.00. Consequently, the Credit Libanais Construction Sector Stock Index (“CLCI”) ended Friday’s session 0.38% higher on a weekly basis at 3,127.27.

In the banking sector, BLOM Bank GDRs amassed the highest concentration of trades (18.58% of total BSE traded volume) with a thin turnover ratio of 0.02%. The Credit Libanais Financial Sector Stock Index (“CLFI”) closed Friday’s session down by 1.85% w-o-w to a new year-low of 531.61. This comes on the back of the 6.25% contraction in the price of Bank Audi GDRs to $1.50, coupled with the 4.73% drop in the price of Bank Audi listed shares to $1.41.

The market-cap weighted average price to book value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended its week higher at 4.707 based on the closing prices of Friday’s session compared to 4.671 in the previous week.