Beirut Stock Exchange Weekly Report

The local stock market exhibited a slight correction last week despite the developments on the privatization front as the Government invited investors to participate in an auction of two 20-year mobile phone licenses or a tender to manage the two existing networks for three years. Moreover, the privatization process is expected to be completed by mid to late-April.

The BLOM Stock Index ended the week down by 0.91% closing at 458.07 points compared to 462.26 points a week earlier. Volume on the BSE decreased sharply to 92,991 shares down from 286,606 shares, mainly due to the low activity of the holiday period. There were no winners this week, while the only share value that changed was BLOM GDRs losing 0.64% closing at $19.375. On the other hand, most frequently traded shares were Solidere"A", Solidere"B", BLOM, and HOLCIM.

BLOM Bank announced that it is planning to get a license to operate in Syria and focus on retail banking.

Lebanese GDRs gained around 0.25% this week. As indicated by the LITSI, Lebanese GDRs closed at 51.33 points compared to 51.2 points a week earlier. Similarly, Arab GDRs gained some 1.09% as shown by the AITSI performance, which closed at 107.05 points compared to 105.9 points a week earlier.