All Share Index grows 1.8% in Bahrain

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Bahrain Bourse swung into positive territory last month in line with growth in most other global equity markets.

The benchmark All Share Index posted 1.8 per cent growth during July 2023 to close at 1,992.41 points, bouncing back from a marginal decline of 0.3pc during June 2023.

In terms of sectoral performance, the picture was mixed with three out of the seven sector indices giving up gains during the month.

However, the performance of large-weighted indices such as the financials index, the communications services index and the materials index were enough to lift the overall Bahrain All Share Index into the green zone.

The communications services index advanced 2.3pc in July 2023 to close at 2,638.5 points after Beyon recorded 2.7pc share price rise during the month buoying up the sector despite the monthly share price slides recorded by the two other constituent companies in the sector.

Moreover, the financials index registered a 1.9pc gain to close the month at 7,105.3 points.

On the other hand, the real estate index dropped 0.7pc to 2,682.2 points as of end-July 2023 while the industrials and the consumer discretionary indices saw a 0.5pc slide each during the month.

In terms of share price performance, according to Bloomberg data, Al Salam Bank Bahrain topped the list of gainers with 25.5pc share price surge during the month followed by Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain and National Hotels Group logging upticks of 8.6pc and 7.1pc, respectively.

Among decliners, Ithmaar Holding lead with a 20pc share price slump during the month followed by Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Company and Bahrain Islamic Bank with reversals of 10pc and 6.2pc, respectively.

Trading activity on the exchange decreased for the second month running with total volume traded on the exchange falling 12.3pc to 49.8 million from 56.7m in June 2023.

Moreover, total value traded on the exchange slipped 6.3pc to BD11.8m in July 2023 as compared to BD12.6m during June 2023.

Al Salam Bank-Bahrain topped the monthly volumes chart with 27.8m of shares traded followed by Ithmaar Holding Company and GFH Financial Group at 4.7m and 2.9m shares, respectively.

On the monthly value traded chart, Al Salam Bank-Bahrain was once again the leader with BD4.6m worth of shares changing hands followed by Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain and Alba which saw BD2.8m and BD1.8m values of their monthly shares traded, respectively.

Zooming out to the GCC region as a whole, the aggregate MSCI GCC index was up 3.3pc last month reflecting positive performance in regional equity trade.

Qatar was the best performing market during the month registering a gain of 8.8pc followed by Dubai and Kuwait benchmarks with monthly rises of 7pc and 3.2pc, respectively.

However, Dubai continued to lead in the GCC in terms of performance since the start of the year with a surge of 21.7pc followed by Saudi Arabia’s TASI that was up 11.6pc.

Bahrain’s benchmark was also in the positive zone with a gain of 5.1pc while the remaining three markets continue to remain in the red.

The sector trend for July-2023 showed broad-based gains with merely four sectors in the red.

Consumer durables and apparels and hotels, restaurants and leisure declined 4.0pc and 2.3pc, respectively, while telecom and retailing sectors also saw a marginal slide.

On the other hand, gains were led by large-cap sectors including capital goods and banks with gains of 7.3pc and 4.9pc, respectively.

The materials and energy sectors also recorded small advances of 0.7pc and 1.7pc, respectively. In terms of year-to-date YTD-2023 performance, all the sectors are now in the green, barring capital goods, with the bulk of them recording double-digit returns.