All Share index closed at 13-year high last month
MANAMA: Bahrain’s benchmark stock market index posted the GCC’s best performance last month, closing at a 13-year high of 1,705.6 points.
Analysis by Kuwait-based Kamco Invest reveals that September 2021 saw a six-month long rally at Bahrain Bourse continue with the All Share index ending with a gain of 3.7 per cent backed by marginal daily gains for the bulk of the trading sessions.
In terms of year-to-date (YTD) 2021 performance, the broad-based advances during September 2021 further supported the benchmark’s gain of 14.5pc, ranking fourth in the GCC this year.
The monthly gainers chart was topped by AUB with its shares up 8pc followed by Batelco and Al Salam Bank with gains of 4.7pc and 3.7pc, respectively.
During the month, AUB priced a $600 million five-year sukuk at 2.615pc with a BB+ rating from Fitch.
On the decliners side, GFH Financial led with a drop of 3.3pc followed by KHCB and BMMI with losses of 2.9pc and 2pc, respectively.
In terms of sector performance, six out of seven sectors at BHB registered gains during September 2021 contributing to the overall rise in the main index.
The communications services sector topped last month recording a gain of 4.6pc, followed by the financial sector and the materials sector which saw gains of 3.8pc and 3.7pc, respectively.
All the constituents of the sector logged gains during September 2021 led by Batelco which was up 4.7pc.
During the month, Batelco announced it has expanded its mobile coverage to new residential projects and announced the construction of a solar park that is expected to be completed this year.
The telco also announced that it would phase out the 2G network that has been in place for 27 years by the end of November 2021 to make way to offer better technologies for higher speeds and better network quality.
On the other hand, consumer staples was the only sector that reported a slide during September 2021, dropping 1.5pc.
Trading activity on the exchange was also down last month after showing gains for the previous two months.
Total volume of shares traded dropped by 2.5pc to 77.3m shares from 79.2m during August 2021.
The value of shares traded during the month also slumped by 9.4pc to BD18.5m as compared to BD20.5m during the previous month.
GFH Financial Group topped the monthly volume traded chart with 31.3m traded shares followed by Al Salam Bank and Alba at 9.8m and 9.4m, respectively.
On the value traded chart, AUB topped with BD7.7m worth of shares traded last month followed by Alba and GFH at BD6.5m and BD6.4m, respectively.
In the wider GCC region, equity markets maintained the upward trend during September 2021 witnessing gains, albeit marginal, for the eleventh consecutive month.
Majority of the exchanges in the region closed the month with a gain, but the overall performance was affected by a 2pc decline in the DFM General Index.
The sector performance chart for the month was skewed toward decliners, however, gains in large-cap sectors like materials, energy and banks, more than offset these declines.
The pharma and biotech sector led with a slump of 11.5pc followed by insurance, down 6.5pc, and healthcare, receding 6.1pc.
This reflected a shift in focus away from sectors that benefited from the pandemic amid normalisation and a steep decline in new cases.
On the other hand, the materials sector witnessed the biggest gain of 8.6pc reflecting a global rally in commodity prices.
The month also witnessed significant activity in the GCC primary equity market with announcements of several big ticket IPOs and M&A deals.
avinash@gdn.com.bh
Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/978963
