Investors upbeat despite BHB’s minor slide in June

Bahrain’s equity market reversed two consecutive months of gains with the benchmark index sliding 0.3 per cent in June 2023.

Analysis by Kuwait-based Kamco Invest shows that the Bahrain Bourse (BHB) All Share Index closed the month at 1,957.87 points, posting the second-largest decline in the GCC during the month, behind only Kuwait.

The decline was driven by weakness in the materials sector, which shrunk by 2.2pc.

This was due to a 2.2pc drop in the share price of Alba, the only constituent of the sector.

Moreover, the industrials index recorded a 0.9pc pullback last month to close at 2,786.5 points.

The financial and consumer staples indices remained flat during June 2023. On the other hand, the communications services and real estate indices inched up 0.1pc each during the month.

The downturn in only two out of the seven sectors was enough to drag the benchmark into the red, a sign of investor caution amid ongoing global economic uncertainty.

However, the fact that the decline was relatively modest suggests that investors remain confident in the long-term prospects of the Bahraini economy and the kingdom’s stock market is still up by 3.3pc year-to-date.

According to Bloomberg data, Ithmaar Holding topped the list of gainers with 128.6pc jump in share price during the month followed by Nass Corp and GFH Financial Group posting returns of 5pc and 4.4pc, respectively.

Ithmaar Holding has recently approved the increase of capital in the bank.

On the decliners side, APM Terminals Bahrain led for the second consecutive month recording 4.3pc share price drop during the month followed by Bank ABC and Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Company with share price reversals of 4.2pc and 3.9pc, respectively.

Trading activity on the exchange dampened last month after a growth in May 2023.

Total volume traded on the exchange tumbled 28.4pc to 56.7 million as compared to 79.2m in May 2023. Moreover, total value traded on the exchange plunged 57.8pc to BD12.5m in June 2023 as compared to BD29.7m during the previous month.

Al Salam Bank-Bahrain topped the monthly volumes chart with 20.3m of its shares changing hands followed by Ithmaar Holding Company and GFH Financial Group at 15.4m and 4.3m shares, respectively.

On the monthly value traded chart, Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain was the leader with BD3.5m worth of shares traded last month followed by Alba and Al Salam Bank-Bahrain which saw BD3.3m and BD3m values of their monthly shares traded, respectively.

Zooming out, GCC equity markets closed in the green during June 2023 after seeing declines during the previous month backed by optimism in global financial markets.

The aggregate MSCI GCC index was up 2.8pc during the month reflecting positive performance in most markets in the region.

With a monthly return of 6pc, Dubai’s DFM was the best performing market in the GCC.

Advances during the month supported the aggregate MSCI GCC index to record an uptick of 0.3pc in 1H-2023 after sliding in the red at the end of May 2023.

Dubai was the best performing market this year with a double-digit gain of 13.7pc.

The sector performance chart for the month showed gains across the board barring the retailing sector that shrank by 3.7pc.

Insurance was the best achiever during June 2023 with a growth of 12pc followed by 11.9pc and 9.2pc gains for consumer durables and F&B indices, respectively.

Large-cap sectors like banks and energy reported low single-digit yields during the month.

Performance in 1H-2023 was positive across the board but a dip of 1.6pc in the large-cap banking sector and a 7.1pc drop in the capital goods index almost fully offset the gains in the rest of the sectors.

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/1275616/Investors-upbeat-despite-BHB%E2%80%99s-minor-slide-in-June