Tunis Stock Exchange Market Commentary

The year 2003 has seen Tunis Stock Exchange start up in a downward trend. The index has lost 0.6%during the first two trading sessions of the year. The transaction volume was also dropping dramatically during the first two days to an average of 0.2Mtnd, after it had reached 7Mtnd at the beginning of the week.

The prospects for the first quarter of 2003 are not any better for the equity market as corporate figures to be published soon are not optimistic especially in the banking sector which accounts for more than 50% of the Tunisian market capitalisation. The banking sector index has reported the worst performance of the week -0.6%, this drop is quite significant for a sector which has always been appreciated for its low volatility compared with the rest of the market.

The retail sector has also reported the second worst performance of the week due to free falling BATAM shares (-5.4%).

The insurance (+1.9%), leasing (+1.6%) and real estate / investment (+1.1%) sectors were the best performing sectors of the week amid a thin transaction volume representing hardly 1% of the total trading. It should be noted that one big transaction was reported in the market with 36% of Electrostar's capital traded (+6.8%) in the frame work of a capital restructuring amid HACHICHA group.

Finally STIP and SOTUVER were included in BVMT index composition starting 2003 and their trading system has changed from fixing quotation to continuous quotation while Amen Bank and Général Leasing were transferred from Continuous to Fixing.