ISX opens week with 0.6% up

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) opened this week’s sessions on Sunday with a rise in its index by 0.6% to close at 90.7 points as rates of shares of 19 out of a total 33 traded firms went up. “More than 453.841 million shares worth 649.975 million Iraqi dinars (roughly $556,000) exchanged hands today (Oct. 10) through 279 deals, of which non-Iraqi investors obtained 20 purchase deals worth 96 million dinars over the banking, industrial, service and hotel sectors and a single sale deal worth 3.8 million dinars over the industrial sector,” according to an ISX news bulletin received by IraqiNews.com news agency. The banking sector took the lead in the session with 39% of the overall trading activities through 73 deals over eight firms, followed by the industrial sector with 26% through 110 deals worth 172 million dinars over 11 firms, the hotel sector with 22% through 48 deals worth 144 million dinars and the service sector with 40 deals worth 72 million dinars over three firms,” it added. Trading was modest over the agricultural and investment 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, 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