ISX slightly down this week

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) index went down slightly on Thursday by 0.04 percent to close at 96.5 points during a session that saw the shares of 16 out of 34 companies exchanging hands. The session witnessed the trading of 579.457 million shares worth 949 million Iraqi dinars (nearly $811,000 U.S. dollars) through 268 transactions, 24 of them went to non-Iraqi investors with a number of 137 million shares worth 170.9 million Iraqi dinars, mostly over the banking, insurance, investment, industrial and service sectors. The banking sector came in the lead today with 74% of the trading volume, followed by the hotel sector with 11% of the trading over five firms and the service sector with 2.2%. The ISX witnessed its first e-trading session on April 19 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, 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