ISX sessions wrap up this week with slight down

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) wrapped up sessions for this week with slight decrease of 0.16% to close at 92.7 points as more than 830 million shares worth 1 billion Iraqi dinars (roughly $904,000). Thursday’s session saw shares of 45 joint-stock out of a total electronically-registered companies exchanging hands, 20 of them went up, eight down and 17 retained their previous rates. The number of traded shares reached 830.426 million worth 1 billion Iraqi dinars through 370 deals, with non-Iraqi investors obtaining 34 purchase deals worth 37.8 million dinars over the banking, service and industrial sectors and four sale deals worth 6.2 million over the industrial and hotel sectors. The banking sector came in the lead with 80% of the trading through 197 deals worth 850 million Iraqi dinars over 15 firms, followed by the industrial sector with 7% through 82 deals worth 78 million dinars over 10 firms and the service sector with 6% through 51 deals worth 68 million dinars over six firms. 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