ISX drops by 18 points this week

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) plunged by 18 points, closing at 262 points, a fall blamed by brokers and investors on a decrease in prices of many firms’ shares after investors had to sell out to get liquidity for fresh subscription in a number of companies that upped their capital. The ISX’s index kept losing points with trading each session this week – 18, nose-diving from last week’s 29-point gain, to close at 281 points, a record high for the Iraqi stock exchange ever since it was established in 2004. The e-trading session on May 3 has seen the selling of more than 228 million shares worth 486 million Iraqi dinars (ID) in 124 transactions in which trading took place over the shares of five joint-stock firms out of a total five registered at the ISX. The three firms are Ashur International Bank (AIB), al-Mansour Bank and the Commercial Bank of Iraq (CBIQ), al-Mansour Hotel and Ashtar Hotel. The AIB and the CBIQ retained their share rates during the previous e-trading session at ID1.200 and ID1.550 respectively while al-Mansour Hotel’s shares rose from ID23 to close at ID27.600 and Ashtar Hotel rose from ID26 to close at ID31.200. The ISX had witnessed the first e-trading session on Sunday (April 19) over five registered companies, three banks and two hotels. The industrial sector took the lead this week, grabbing the biggest chunk of traded shares by 73% and 45% in trading value out of the total manual trading, followed by the hotel sector with 37% and 20% and coming third was the banking sector with 16% of shares and 10% in trading value. The ISX holds three sessions on a weekly basis: one electronic session over five joint-stock companies on Sundays and two manual trading sessions over 86 registered companies out of a total 91 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. AmR (S)/SR 1