Bahrain Bourse gains 7 per cent

MANAMA: Bahrain Bourse (BHB) gained by 7 per cent month-on-month (MoM) last month after improving marginally by 1pc MoM in July 2020.

The latest monthly analysis of regional stock markets by Kuwait-based Kamco Invest shows that the Bahrain All Share Index closed August at 1380.89 points, but sectoral performance was mixed.

Index performance was supported by the two main indices, with Industrials as the best performing index with gains of 19.4pc MoM, followed by Commercial banks that moved up by 10.1pc MoM.

Insurance and Hotels & tourism indices were the receding sectors, albeit marginally, with declines of 1.1pc and 0.4pc MoM respectively.

Prominent

In prominent H1-2020 earnings, GFH reported total income for H1-2020 of $146.53m versus $163.55m for H1-2019, a decrease of 10.4pc year-on-year (YoY).

Net profit was $15.05m for H1-2020 compared with $49.13m in H1-2019, a decrease of 69.4pc YoY, mainly ascribed to the impact of Covid-19 and slower markets, which impacted the investment banking, commercial banking, real estate and treasury business lines.

In other prominent earnings, AUB reported net profit of $293.4 for H1-2020, down 22.3pc YoY from $377.5m in H1-2019, mainly from the impact of Covid-19 and lower oil prices.

Investcorp reported results for H2-FY2020 and for the FY2020 which were impacted by the Covid-19 crisis resulting in a net loss of $165m for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 from a net profit of $131m for the year ended June 30, 2019.

Arab Banking Corporation (Bank ABC) announced total operating income of $240m for H1-2020, 45pc lower compared to $437m reported for H1-2019.

Trading activity at BHB however was mixed, as volumes declined by 12.2pc MoM to 96.2m shares.

Value traded improved by 35pc MoM and reached BD16.6m. The number of trades made in the exchange increased to 1293, up 20.3pc MoM from July 2020.

AUB was the most actively traded stock in August 2020 with BD10.23m worth of shares traded on the exchange.

GFH and Alba followed with BD8.03m and BD3.60m worth of shares traded.

In terms of volumes traded, GFH was the most active stock as 50.6m shares were traded, followed by AUB and Alba with 14.8m and 10.5m shares respectively.

Decline

Among the monthly gainers, Alba saw its share price jump by 20.1pc MoM, followed by AUB and APM Terminals Bahrain with gains of 17.4pc and 8.1pc respectively.

Bahrain Commercial Facilities was the main laggard, as it witnessed a decline of 16.7pc MoM, followed by Bahrain Cinema and Ithmaar Holding with monthly declines of 10.0pc and 9.3pc respectively.

Looking at the GCC region as a whole, markets once again witnessed gains across all markets and most sectors during August 2020, resulting in an aggregate monthly gain of 6.2pc for the S&P GCC Total return index.

Despite consecutive gains over the last five months, the GCC aggregate index is down by 6.2pc since the start of the year.

In terms of sector performance, the Consumer durables and apparels sector once again witnessed double digit gains.

The index gained 20pc during the month, followed by Capital goods and Pharma and biotech sector benchmarks, with double digit gains of 15.8pc and 14pc, respectively.

The Real estate and Banking indices were also up by 9.7pc and 7pc respectively.

In terms of YTD-2020 performance, the Food and drugs retailing sector remained the best performing sector in the GCC with a gain of more than 50pc, followed by Pharma and biotech and F&B indices with gains of 33.7pc and 29.7pc respectively.

Real estate and Banks remained laggards with declines of 16.1pc and 11.2pc, respectively, since the start of the year.

Source: http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/851284/Bahrain-Bourse-gains-7-per-cent