ISX trades over 17 firms’ shares

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) on Tuesday traded over 788.7 million shares at more than 1.7 billion Iraqi dinars (ID), roughly $1.4 million U.S. dollars, through 318 transactions over the shares of 17 out of 52 electronically-registered joint-stock companies. Today’s session saw two companies’ shares rising, 11 going down and four remaining unchanged. The banking sector came in the lead with 96 percent of the traded shares through transactions on six banking firms, followed by the hotel sector’s 80 transactions with 20 percent of the traded shares. The ISX witnessed the first e-trading session on April 19 over five registered companies, three banks and two hotels. The banks were the Ashur International Bank (AIB), Al-Mansour Bank and the Iraqi Credit Bank while the hotels were the 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 three electronic sessions on a weekly basis: on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. SH (P)/SR 1