Bahrain’s equity market swung to a partial recovery last month after a monthly decline of 2.3 per cent during March, according to Kamco Invest.

The latest monthly report by the Kuwait-based brokerage and research firm shows that the Bahrain Bourse All Share Index was up 0.9 per cent during April to close the month at 1,904.39 points.

In terms of sectoral performance, only three of seven indices recorded gains during the month.

The materials index, which only has one constituent company (Alba), recorded the biggest growth among the indices at 1.9pc during April, becoming the main contributor to the upswing in the overall bourse index.

The financials index followed as the second biggest gainer among the indices, climbing 1.2pc last month to close at 6,837.6 points mainly due to the performance of companies such as Solidarity Bahrain and Al Salam Bank Bahrain which posted monthly share price gains of 12.8pc and 37.5pc, respectively.

On the other hand, the consumer staples sector logged a slide of 6.5pc to close the month at 2,806.5 points while the remaining three indices – communication services, industrials and real estate – all recorded declines of 1.4pc.

In terms of share price performance, Bloomberg data shows Al Salam Bank-Bahrain topped the list of gainers with a 37.5pc surge during the month followed by Nass Corp and Solidarity Bahrain with gains of 28.6pc and 12.8pc, respectively.

Among decliners, Bahrain Ship Repairing and Engineering Company led with a 5.3pc share price drop during the month followed by Esterad and APM Terminals that receded by 5pc and 4.1pc, respectively.

Trading activity on the exchange decreased during April after recovering from two consecutive months during March and February mainly reflecting the trading holidays during Ramadan.

Total volume traded on the exchange fell 61.6pc to 58.6 million as compared to 152.7m in March.

Similarly, total value traded on the exchange saw a decline of 41.6pc to BD16.2m in April as compared to BD27.8m during March 2023.

Al Salam Bank-Bahrain topped the monthly volumes chart with 19.8m shares changing hands followed by GFH Financial Group and Ithmaar Holding which saw 18.1m and 5.8m in trades during the month, respectively.

On the monthly value traded chart, GFH Financial Group led for the second month running with BD4.6m worth of sales during the month followed by Alba and Al Salam Bank-Bahrain which saw BD2.7m and BD2.3m values of their monthly shares traded, respectively.

Zooming out, GCC markets closed April at the highest level since the last week of January mainly led by consistent gains during the last week of the month.

Saudi Arabia was the best performing market during the month with a gain of 6.8pc followed by UAE markets with monthly rises of 4.1pc and 3.8pc for Dubai and Abu Dhabi, respectively.

The sector performance chart for the month showed gains across the board with the diversified financials index topping the monthly list with a gain of 12.8pc followed by telecom and F&B sector indices with gains of 10.2pc and 9.4pc, respectively.

Large-cap sectors like energy were next with a gain of 9.3pc while the banking gauge saw a relatively smaller gain of 3.8pc.

Global equity markets were mixed but closed the month in the green.

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