ISX trading hits ID13b

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) trading activities hit 13.116 billion Iraqi dinars (roughly $11.2 million), mostly over the Iraqi Islamic Bank in its first electronic trading session after it met its obligations for securities authorities and the Central Bank of Iraq (CBI). On 2 November, 2009, IraqiNews.com news agency reported that the CBI had dissolved the IIB board as a result of Iraqi banking law violations. The CBI supervised the Iraqi Islamic Bank directly until a new board was in place. Sunday’s session saw trading over shares of 29 out of a total electonically-registered firms, 14 of them went down, five up while 10 others retained their previous rates, with the ISX index registering a slight decrease of 0.4% to close at 94.5 points. Traded shares hit 13.402 billion worth 13.116 billion dinars, with non-Iraqi investors grabbing 17 purchase deals worth 18 million dinars over the banking, service and industrial sectors and one sale deal worth 736,000 dinars over the banking sector. The banking sector took the lead with 98% of the overall trading through 142 deals worth 12.986 billion dinars over six firms, followed by the service sector with 63 deals worth 72 billion dinars over five firms and the industrial sector with 40 deals over eight firms. The ISX witnessed its first E-trading session on April 19, 2009 over five registered companies, three banks and two hotels. The banks were: Ashur International Bank (AIB), Al-Mansour Bank and the Iraqi Credit Bank while the hotels were: Ashtar Hotel and Al-Mansour Hotel. On June 7, the Iraqi Middle East Investment Bank and the Warka Bank joined the electronic trading sessions. The ISX now holds five sessions from Sunday to Thursday. AmR (S) 1