ISX opens week with 0.1% down

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) opened this week with a slight decrease in its index by 0.1% to close at 91.2 points as rates of shares of 12 out of a total 27 traded firms went down. “Today’s session saw more than 268 million shares exchanging hands at a value of 416.821 million Iraqi dinars through 168 deals with non-Iraqi investors obtaining two purchase deals worth 3.8 million dinars over the banking sector and one sale deal worth 1.8 million dinars over the industrial sector,” according to an ISX news bulletin received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The banking sector took the lead with 65% of the overall trading activities through 43 deals worth 272 million dinars over seven firms, followed by the service sector with 15% through 57 deals worth 60 million dinars and the hotel sector through 28 deals worth 59 million dinars over seven firms. Trading was poor over the industrial and investment sectors while the insurance and agriculture sector saw zero trading activities. 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, 2009, the Iraqi Middle East Investment Bank and the Warka Bank joined the electronic trading sessions. The ISX now holds five sessions from Sunday to Thursday. AmR (S) 1