ISX ends week with 0.7 up

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) ended the week on Thursday with an increase of 0.7% to close at 122 points as rates of shares of 21 out of a total 40 traded firms went up, compared to the previous session’s 0.4% to close at 121.2 points. “More than 1.795 million shares exchanged hands at 2.426 billion Iraqi dinars (roughly $1 million) through 535 deals. Twenty-one firms went in the green, 11 in the red while eight retained their previous levels,” according to an ISX news bulletin received by IraqiNews.com news agency. Non-Iraqi investors obtained 131 purchase deals worth 876 million dinars, mostly over the banking and industrial sectors, nearly 36% of the overall trading. There was no single selling deal by non-Iraqi investors. The banking sector took the lead with 79% of the trading activities through 319 deals worth 1.925 billion dinars over 13 firms, followed by the industrial sector with 15% through 160 deals worth 377 million over 14 firms and the service sector with 4% through 29 deals worth 100 million dinars over four firms. Trading was modest over the hotel, insurance, investment and agricultural sectors. 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 holds five sessions from Sunday to Thursday. AmR (TS) 408