The Bahrain Bourse (BHB) continued to fall for the second month in a row in September 2023, dropping by a slight 0.7 per cent to close the month at 1,939.13 points.

The All Share Index could not defy the bearishness in GCC equity markets that logged a two-month long recessionary trend taking cues from the decline in global equity markets, according to a report by Kuwait-based Kamco Invest.

In terms of sectoral performance, six out of the seven sector indices witnessed declines last month.

The materials index together with the consumer discretionary index recorded the biggest decline in September 2023 at 2.2pc each to close the month at 5,030.6 and 3,387.9 points, respectively.

The industrial index was next with a decline of 2.1pc to close the month at 2,701.4 points mainly due to the 3pc drop in shares in APM Terminals Bahrain.

On the other hand, the consumer staples index recorded the only gain during September 2023 after it recorded a marginal growth of 0.3pc to close the month at 2,616 points solely due to the marginal gain in shares of Bahrain Flour Company (0.3pc) and Trafco Group (1.9pc).

In terms of share performance, according to Bloomberg data, Bank ABC topped the list of gainers with 23.9pc share price surge during the month followed by Esterad Investment and National Hotels Company with gains of 19.1pc and 5.3pc, respectively.

On the decliners side, Cineco led with a 15pc drop in its share price decline during the month followed by Bahrain Islamic Bank and Bahrain Duty Free Complex with share price slides of 8.6pc and 6.9pc, respectively.

Trading activity on the exchange shrunk during September 2023 after recording an increase during August 2023.

Total volume traded on the exchange dropped by 53.4pc to 31.6m shares last month as compared to 67.8m shares in the eighth month of the year.

Moreover, total value traded on the exchange fell 43.6pc to BD10.4m in September 2023 as compared to BD18.5m during August 2023.

Bank ABC topped the monthly volumes chart with 6.5m traded shares followed by National Bank of Bahrain and Al Salam Bank Bahrain at 5.7m and 5.3m shares, respectively.

On the monthly value traded chart, National Bank of Bahrain topped with BD3.4m worth of shares changing hands during September followed by Alba and Kuwait Finance House which saw BD2.5m and BD2.3m in value of trade in their shares, respectively.

Zooming out, the MSCI GCC index declined 2.7pc last month, wiping off gains since the start of the year.

The year to date (YTD) decline now stands at 3pc. The slump in the GCC was broadbased with only Dubai and Qatari markets in the positive territory during September while the rest of the markets fell.

Saudi Arabia’s TASI saw the biggest monthly setback with a drop of 3.8pc followed by Oman and Kuwait with declines of 2.5pc and 1.7pc, respectively.

However, in terms of YTD-2023 performance, Dubai continues to boast a surge of 24.8pc followed by Saudi Arabia and Bahrain with gains of 5.5pc and 2.3pc, respectively.

The rest of the markets in the GCC were in the red.

In terms of sector performance, most of the GCC indices were in the red during September 2023, including banks that dropped by 3.8pc.

On the other hand, gainers were few but included real estate and energy with advances of 2.4pc and 1.6pc, respectively.

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