The majority agrees on the absence of incentives in Palestine Stock Exchange PEX during this period, which dictates inactivity in terms of liquidity and price movements. During this week, Al-Quds Index continued to horizontally move without any negative or positive signals that may stimulate a specific trend, and most signals remained neutral awaiting for new and effective incentives, perhaps most notably the financial statements of the first nine months of  2013, in which, will reach their disclosure deadline by the end of October.  Despite the calmness and the narrow movement imposed by the balance between the purchasing power and profits taking transactions -even if weak-; all indicators are positive and emphasizing that the growth opportunities exist in time dominating  the first substantial incentive that stimulus the investor"s decision" basis. This comes, especially, with maintaining coherent performance in the PEX in spite of the sharp fluctuations in the other regional markets, in addition to the fact that the majority of listed companies’ shares trade around low price levels with attractive market indicators. 

In terms of liquidity, the reasons behind its increase during this week in comparison to the previous one relies on executing an institutional transaction on the shares of Palestine Islamic Bank of one million shares in addition to executing other small, varied-sized transactions on the shares of Palestine Telecommunications, Palestine Commercial Bank and Wataniya Palestine Mobile Telecommunications. In this context, Palestine Islamic Bank ISBK’s share topped the PEX in terms of trading value when reached $1.56 million; contributing around 35.58% of the PEX’s total trading value. ISBK recorded significant gains of 6.19%, when closed at the level of $1.20. In terms of price activity, Palestine Commercial Bank PCB’s share topped the most gainers during the week by recording gains of 7.69% to close at the level of $0.70 through weak transactions of $53 thousands represented by an executed transaction between board members of the bank.

Regarding the blue-chips’ performance, the share of Palestine Telecommunications PALTEL- the largest company by market capitalization and the heaviest weighted share in Al-Quds Index- came in the second place in terms of the most active shares, when recorded trading value of $1.17 million. The share traded within price range of 1.59% from its lowest recorded price this week, to close at the level of JD5.08; slightly up by 0.59%. On the other hand, the share of the largest investment company by market capitalization- Palestine Development and Investment Company PADICO- decreased by 0.97% to close at the level of $1.02 through transactions worth of $0.30 million and within 3.00% price range from the lowest recorded price in the week. On the contrary, the share of Bank of Palestine BOP increased by 0.69%, when it ended its transactions of $0.32 million at the level of $2.90. It is worth mentioning that the investors’ anticipation will increase for the financial results disclosures of these three companies especially with PEX being closed in celebration of Al-Adha Eid holiday and resuming on Sunday 20/10/2013.    

Regarding the 9M of 2013 financial statements disclosures of the PEX listed companies; two companies disclosed their financial results until the end of the week, whereby, the disclosure momentum is expected to increase in the last 10 days of the current month after the end of Al-Adha Eid. According to the disclosed financial statements, Palestine Mortgage & Housing Corporation PMHC announced achieving net income of $0.27 million in 9M 2013 compared to a net income of $0.41 million in 9M 2012. This decrease came despite an increase in the interest on loans granted to banks and insurance premiums that contrasted not reporting gains from selling financial assets as it did in the same period of 2012.