ISX trades over 1.295b shares on Thursday

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Prices of shares of 12 joint-stock companies were on the rise and catapulted into the green while 11 others’ went down and went into the red during Thursday’s session at the Iraqi Stock Exchange (ISX) with its index slightly down by 0.291%. Today’s session saw shares of 26 out of a total 64 electronically registered companies exchanging hands as only three firms retained their previous rates during the last session, closing at 113, 521 points. The ISX traded over more than 1.295 billion shares at a value of 2.230 billion Iraqi dinars ($1.9 million) through 427 transactions, including 81 for non-Iraqis over 336.5 million shares, 25% of the total traded stocks. The banking sector was in the lead in today’s session, grabbing 88% of the traded shares, followed by the industrial sector with a total number of traded shares of more than 139 million at a value exceeding 235 million Iraqi dinars through 89 transactions over eight companies. The hotels sector’s performance was frail during Thursday’s session with only 7.2 million traded shares valued at 192 million Iraqi dinars through 49 transactions over five companies. 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: Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. AmR (S) 1