ISX recovers 29 points, gains 10 more this week

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) recovered 29 points it had lost during the past fortnight and gained 10 more to close at 302 points, a record high since its establishment in 2004. Last week, the 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 e-trading session on May 10 has seen the selling of more than 74 million shares worth 280 million Iraqi dinars (ID) in 58 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 CBIQ retained its share rates of the previous e-trading session at ID1.550, while the AIB’s went down from ID1.200 to ID1.150. Al-Mansour Hotel’s rose from ID27.600 to close at ID33 and Ashtar Hotel’s from ID31.200 to close at ID34.800. Two manual trading sessions were held this week during which 971.8 million shares exchanged hands at ID2.2 billion ($1.8 million) through 491 transactions. 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 42% out of the total manual trading, followed by the hotel sector with 26% and coming third was the investment sector with 25% of shares. 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) 1