Bahrain Bourse up 16 per cent in 11 months

A broad-based decline dragged the Bahrain All Share index into the red, albeit marginally, during November 2021 as the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, sent shockwaves across financial markets globally.

The index fell 0.8 per cent last month to close at 1,729.6 points after gains at the start of November were completely wiped off by the end of the month, finds analysis by Kuwait-based Kamco Invest.

The index was in the green until the last trading day, but a decline of 1.4pc on November 30 pushed MTD gains in the red.

In terms of YTD-21 performance, the index is up 16.1pc for the first 11 months of the year, ranking fifth in the GCC.

On the sectoral front, only the industrial index registered a marginal gain of 0.2pc during the month, with the remaining six sectors on the Bahrain Bourse logging monthly declines contributing to the overall dip in the main index.

The communications services index topped the falling indices table with a slide of 5pc during November 2021 followed by the materials and the real estate indices with declines of 4.1pc and 3.6pc, respectively.

The monthly gainers chart was crowned by Ithmaar Holding which saw its share price jump 24.6pc followed by GFH Financial Group and Al Baraka Banking Group with advances of 22.5pc and 12.1pc, respectively.

Leading the decliners was Bahrain Kuwait Insurance recording a 10pc fall in its share price last month followed by Bahrain Cinema and Ahli United Bank (AUB) which registered 9.6pc and 6.2pc declines respectively.

Trading activity in the exchange decreased during November 2021.

Total volume of shares traded fell by 18.1pc to 79.5 million shares last month as compared to 97m shares during October 2021.

On the other hand, value of shares traded during the month dropped by 5.4pc to BD16.4m compared to BD17.4m during the previous month.

GFH Financial Group topped the monthly volume traded chart in the second month running with 32.1m traded shares followed by Al Salam Bank-Bahrain and Khaleeji Commercial Bank at 16.3m shares and 6.6m shares, respectively.

The Sharia-compliant investment firm also topped the value traded chart with BD9.3m worth of shares traded during the month followed by AUB and Alba at BD3.8m and BD3.4m, respectively.

Markets in the GCC region as a whole declined for the first time in 13 months in November 2021 in line with most major exchanges globally.

The MSCI GCC index dropped 4.7pc last month and in terms of market cap, total value of listed stocks in the region declined by $205 billion to $3.5 trillion by the end of the month.

The monthly decline during November 2021 dented the performance of GCC markets since the start of the year which now stands at 29.7pc.

Within the GCC, Abu Dhabi and Dubai exchanges remained largely resilient to the global pressure, although even these markets were not spared on November 28, which saw a steep global single day sell-off, with declines of 1.8pc and 5.2pc.

Most GCC markets reported a decline last month, barring Abu Dhabi and Dubai that reported gains of 8.7pc and 7.3pc, respectively.

Saudi Arabia’s TASI reported the biggest decline of 8.1pc losing almost $240.3bn in market cap during November 2021.

The decline highlighted the impact of the slide in oil prices to below $70/barrel mark, although briefly.

The GCC sector performance chart showed declines across the board during November 2021 with the exception of diversified financials and telecom indices that reported gains of 5.3pc and 4.2pc, respectively, while real estate was almost flat with a gain of 0.1pc.

Consumer durables and apparel was the biggest decliner with a monthly fall of 21.5pc followed by utilities and pharma and biotech indices with declines of 13.5pc and 12.4pc, respectively.

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/1015845/Bahrain-Bourse-up-16-per-cent-in-11-months