Activity on the Lebanese stock market portrayed mixed results during the fourth month of 2024 with volume traded decreasing by 7.58% month-on-month to 736,801 shares, compared to 797,200 shares in March and value traded rising by 26.14% to $18.27 million, from around $14.49 million a month earlier. Trades mainly consisted of banking sector stocks (67.59% of total number of shares traded) followed by real estate (28.77%) and industry & trading (3.63%) stocks. The market capitalization of listed companies dropped by 3.26% in April to $17.24 billion and came in 10.67% lower year-on-year when compared to the $19.30 billion reading reported in April 2023. The monthly decrease in the market capitalization owes to the contraction in the prices of heavy market capitalization-weighted stocks, namely Bank Audi listed shares (33.62% monthly decrease), BLOM Bank GDRs (9.71% monthly drop), Byblos Bank listed shares (8.77% monthly contraction), Solidere “A” shares (1.03% monthly drop), and Solidere “B” shares (2.36% monthly decrease) which wiped out the appreciation in the price of BLOM Bank listed shares (24.86% monthly increase).

On an annual basis, the number of shares changing hands on the BSE fell by 82.64% in the first four months of 2024 to 4.67 million shares while the value of shares traded increased by 39.09% to $200.50 million. As far as trading multiples are concerned, the weighted average Price to Book Value (P/BV) multiple of listed stocks ended the last trading day of April lower at 5.631x from 5.656x in March, noting that it stood at 7.081x in April 2023 at a time when the prices of Solidere “A” and “B” shares were trading at $89.10 and $88.25 respectively, compared to closing prices of $72.40 for Solidere “A” shares and $72.45 for “Solidere “B” shares as at end of April 2024.

Overall, trading activity remained flat on a monthly basis as evidenced by the turnover ratio (being the number of shares traded divided by total listed shares) of 0.04% in April 2024. Conversely, the turnover ratio decreased to 0.24% by the end of the first four months of this year, compared to 1.36% in the same period last year.