ISX index loses 4 points in one week

BAGHDAD/IraqiNews.com: Iraqi stock exchange (ISX) index lost four points during sessions this week after continued rise passed 13 points in less than two months, which made investors believe that the ISX could be affected by the global crisis. The ISX index decreased by 0.8% in the three sessions this week to reach 53.292 points after the last week booming which registered 57.891 last Thursday. Traded shares in this week exceeded 2.21 billion at a total value of over 3.29 billion Iraqi dinars (nearly $ 2.74 million) through implementing 669 contracts. The banking sector achieved the highest trading volume. Trading for Non-Iraqi investors exceeded 259.9 million dinars (nearly $220.000), through implementing 68 contracts in banking, industrial and hotels sectors, registering a drop despite expectation they would seek Iraqi bourse unaffected by the global financial crisis. “The losses that hit investors in international bourses led to shrinkage of liquidity along with Iraq ’s deteriorating security” an investor accounted for the drop of non-Iraqi investors. Share prices on Iraq ’s stock exchange plummeted during the years of sectarian warfare after the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Investors say visiting the bourse was almost impossible when armed groups ruled the streets. But violence has fallen to four-year lows. Baghdad ’s stock index jumped a year ago when the fall in violence was most pronounced, and has zoomed again in recent weeks as investors eye a reconstruction bonanza fuelled by huge oil revenues. SH (S) 1