Bahrain Stock Exchange (BHB) continued to decline for the second consecutive month in September 2023, ending the month with a decline of only 0.7% at 1,939.13 points.
The all-share index failed to buck the weakness in the GCC stock market, which recorded a two-month recessionary trend on the cue of global stock market declines, according to a report by Kuwait-based Camco Invest. That’s what it means.
In terms of sectoral performance, six out of seven sectoral indexes declined last month.
The Materials Index and Consumer Discretionary Index recorded the largest decline of 2.2% in September 2023, ending the month at 5,030.6 points and 3,387.9 points, respectively.
Next was the industrial index, which fell 2.1% to end the month at 2,701.4 points. This is mainly due to his 3% drop in APM Terminals Bahrain shares.
Meanwhile, the consumer staples index recorded a modest increase of 0.3% to end the month at 2,616 points, with only a slight rise in Bahrain Flour Company (0.3%) and Trafco shares during September 2023. recorded an increase. Group (1.9pc).
In terms of stock price performance, ABC Bank topped the list of gainers with a 23.9% share price increase for the month, followed by Esterad Investments and National Hotels Company, which rose 19.1% and 5.3%, respectively, according to Bloomberg data. did.
Among the stocks that declined, Cineco was the leading stock price decline for the month, with a 15% decline, followed by Bahrain Islamic Bank and Bahrain Duty Free Complex, which fell 8.6% and 6.9%, respectively.
Trading activity on the exchange recorded an increase in August 2023 before contracting in September 2023.
The exchange’s total trading volume fell 53.4% last month to 31.6 million shares, compared to 67.8 million shares in August this year.
Additionally, the total trading volume on the exchange decreased by 43.6% to 10.4 million BD in September 2023 compared to 18.5 million BD in August 2023.
ABC Bank topped the monthly volume chart with 6.5 million shares, followed by National Bank of Bahrain and National Bank of Bahrain with 5.7 million and 5.3 million shares, respectively.
On the monthly trading value chart, National Bank of Bahrain topped the list with a stock trading volume worth BD 3.4 million during September, followed by Alba and Kuwait Finance House with stock trading volume worth BD 2.5 million and BD 2.3 million respectively. did.
Zooming out, the MSCI GCC index fell 2.7% last month, erasing gains since the beginning of the year.
Year-to-date (YTD) decline currently stands at 3%. The weakness in the GCC countries was widespread, with only the Dubai and Qatar markets in positive territory during September, with the rest of the markets declining.
Saudi Arabia’s TASI fell by 3.8%, the biggest monthly decline. Oman and Kuwait were next with declines of 2.5% and 1.7%, respectively.
However, in terms of year-to-date performance in 2023, Dubai continues to boast an increase of 24.8%, followed by Saudi Arabia and Bahrain with increases of 5.5% and 2.3% respectively.
The remaining markets in the GCC were in the red.
In terms of sector performance, most of the GCC index was in the red in September 2023, including banks, which fell by 3.8%.
On the other hand, there were fewer gainers, including real estate and energy, which rose 2.4% and 1.6%, respectively.
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