Activity on the Lebanese stock market grew thinner during the last month of 2024 with the number of shares changing hands decreasing by 4.69% to 1,636,678 shares, compared to 1,717,278 shares in November while value traded soared by 54.69% to $71.13 million, from around $45.98 million a month earlier. Trades mainly consisted of banking stocks (56.56% of total number of shares traded) followed by real estate (43.20%) and industry & trading (0.24%) stocks. The market capitalization of listed companies skyrocketed in December to $26.95 billion and came in 31.60% higher year-on-year when compared to the $20.48 billion reading reported in December 2023. The sizeable monthly increase in the market capitalization owes to the appreciation of most listed stocks in the aftermath of the ceasefire agreement reached in the last week of November. More specifically, the prices of heavy market-capitalization weighted stocks witnessed significant monthly increases with Solidere “A” shares casting a 28.55% monthly increase, Solidere “B” shares surging by 26.99%, Bank Audi listed shares improving by 25.89%, and Byblos Bank listed shares recording a 19.39% month-on-month hike, only to name a few.

On an annual basis, the number of shares changing hands on the BSE fell by 65.57% in 2024 to 12.57 million shares with the value of shares traded decreasing by 14.78% to $535.83 million. This contraction may be explained by the repercussions of the escalation of the war on Lebanon between the months of September and November. 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 December higher at 9.749x up from 7.565x in November, noting that it stood at 6.952x in December 2023 at a time when the prices of heavy market-cap weighted Solidere “A” and “B” shares were trading at $89.10 and $89.95 respectively, compared to closing prices of $120.00 for Solidere “A” shares and $119.50 for “Solidere “B” shares as at end of December 2024.

Overall, trading dynamics weakened in December as portrayed by the turnover ratio (being the number of shares traded divided by total listed shares) which fell to 0.08%, down from 0.09% in November. Similarly, the turnover ratio decreased to 0.64% in the full year 2024, compared to 1.85% in 2023.