The heavy lack of liquidity and the downward trend in Palestine Stock Exchange PEX continued this week, after they have dominated trading for several weeks. Furthermore, the PEX enters in a historical routinely indolence with the beginning of the coming month that coincides with the beginning of the holy month Ramadan. In this period, the reasons of trading scarcity increase amid a slowness in price movements, leading to a routine period anticipation. While the private entity of the Palestinian investment environment in general and the PEX in particular led the investment decision to enter into a varied periodic anticipations with different motives due to its completely linkage with a political solution despite the significant returns of the listed companies. In a relevant context, the investment appetite witness some stalemate following the scarcity in the positive developments regarding the political and security situation. The waiting factor and the expectancy variation for the semi-annual financial disclosure dominate also despite recording attractive prices for some listed shares that recommend eye-catching investments.

Due to the variation in Al-Quds Index weights and within trading range that didn’t exceed the 10 points, Al-Quds Index declined this week by 1.47% after weak transactions worth $3.23 million that held the investors’ cautiousness in building their investment positions. With the absence of any substantial news, the share of Palestine Telecommunications PALTEL – the largest company by market capitalization- decreased by 0.55%, to close at the level of JD5.45 through transactions that constituted 38.36% of the PEX total trading value during the week. In this context, several traders’ categories are undoubtedly anticipating PALTEL’s semi-annual operational results disclosure for the year 2014 in order to complete the visionary picture in their minds about the returns that will be recorded during the year especially after disclosing distinguished results in Q1 2014. 

On the other hand, the share of Palestine Development and Investment Company PADICO- the largest investment company by market capitalization- witnessed a significant weak and slow performance through trading in a relatively narrow range. PADICO’s share didn’t succeed to close within its highest range during the week. In the last trading session, PADICO’s share closed at the level of $1.50; down by 1.32% than its previous week closing after transactions that contributed 15.88% of the PEX total trading value. In another context, the listed companies’ board of directors meeting accelerated during the current period to discuss the companies’ performance during the period, whereby, the board of directors of PADICO held a meeting and discussed the company’s performance, its future plans and its projects’ performance and developments. Within the PEX activity, the trading value of the banking sector increased due to executing an institutional transaction on the share of Palestine Investment Bank PIBC that constituted 13.50% of the PEX total trading value. Furthermore, the leading share of Bank of Palestine BOP- the largest bank by market capitalization- decreased by 1.04%, to close at the level of $2.85 after transactions that constituted 15.25% of the PEX total trading value.