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Scarcity in trading with the start of the holy month of Ramadan

2018-05-17

Sahem Weekly Trading Report (13-17)-05-2018

With the start of the holy month of Ramadan and the receding in the wave of holding the general assembly meetings for the listed companies and the approaching end of May, Palestine Stock Exchange PEX will currently witnesses two new routinely anticipations, which are the expectancy of semi-annual listed companies’ financial data disclosures on one side, and the slow transactions of Ramadan on another side. However and despite the witnessed political instability in the Palestinian arena this week of moving the US embassy and other countries’ embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on the Palestinian Nakba Day, and what coincided of anger and clashes in Gaza and the West Bank, Al-Quds Index dropped slightly by 0.46% in this week- with four trading sessions-, to record 542.19 points. This mainly resulted from the start of a routine price declines wave in order to balance the prices after the dividends’ distribution, to prove repeatedly the ability of the PEX to isolate itself from any political or economic instability conditions. However, it is worth mentioning that with the price declines, the anticipation degrees among investors increase in order to capture the best opportunities to build investment positions in the PEX. Whereby, with the price routine cycles of the leading stocks prior and after the dividends distribution, the main reason for the price movements in the PEX, in general, appear.

In another context, the state of lack of liquidity that has dominated the trading process in the PEX for a while continued. Nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that the institutional transactions raise the trading value from time to time, while the ordinary trading value barely records acceptable levels. However, in the market, the stock of the Arab Palestinian Investment Company APIC topped the PEX in terms of trading value this week when its transactions contributed for 27.07% from total PEX trading value, to close at the level of $2.13; up by 2.90% than its previous weekly closing level and by 4.93% than its equivalent price after the distribution approval of cash and stocks dividends for the year 2017. Also, the stock of the largest company by market capitalization – Palestine Telecommunication PALTEL – traded higher than its equivalent price by 0.70%, to close at the level of JD4.33; down by 0.23% than its previous weekly closing level after transactions that contributed for 13.01% from total PEX trading value. Moreover, regarding the stock of the largest investment company by market capitalization – Palestine Development and Investment Company PADICO –, it closed at the level of $1.30; down by 1.52%  than its previous weekly closing level after trading in a relatively narrow range and following transactions that contributed for 6.43% from total PEX trading value. On the other hand, the stock of Palestine Insurance Company PICO increased significantly by14.94% than its previous weekly closing level when its contributed for 15.74% from total PEX trading value.