Bahrain’s equity market ended 2022 up 5.5 per cent over the previous year, posting the second consecutive annual growth in a year marked by high volatility.

Analysis by Kuwait-based Kamco Invest shows that the Bahrain Bourse All Share Index wrapped the year at 1,895.27 points ranking third in the GCC in terms of yearly returns during 2022, following the exceptional surge of 20.6pc in 2021.

During the year, the benchmark reached a 14-year high level during March-2022 at 2,122.51 points but consistent declines during Q2-2022 pushed the index down to a yearly low of 1,806.3 points at the end of June 2022.

Bullishness returned during Q3-2022 but the last quarter was largely subdued only to see gains towards the end of the year.

Sectoral performance was mixed between gainers and decliners.

Three of the seven indices in Bahrain Bourse (BHB) saw advances during the year with the other four receding to skew the trend.

The materials sector, which has only one constituent company (Alba), recorded the biggest yearly growth in the bourse during the year, surging 36.2pc to close at 5,007.66 points.

The jump in Alba’s share price underlined the company’s robust financial performance during the year.

The aluminium smelter reported 9M-2022 net profit of BD376.7 million against BD270.7m in 9M-2021.

Gulf Hotel Group and Nass Corp followed Alba as the second and third biggest gainers registering rises of 19pc and 11.4pc their share price, respectively.

Among decliners, Ithmaar Holding topped the table, with its share price plunging 39.4pc last year followed by Esterad Investment and Bank ABC which saw drops of 31pc and 27.8pc in their share prices, respectively.

Trading activity in BHB fell sharply during 2022, with total value traded slumping by 33.8pc to BD221m from BD331m during 2021.

Likewise, total yearly volume traded in the bourse sank 44.5pc to 489m shares during 2022 from 880m in 2021.

Alba topped the yearly value traded chart with BD64.3m worth of its shares changing hands during the year followed by Ahli United Bank and GFH Financial Group at BD57.6m and BD36.4m worth of shares being traded, respectively.

In terms of volume traded during the year, GFH Financial Group was the leader, logging 118.4m of shares changing hands during the year.

Al Salam Bank-Bahrain and Ahli United Bank followed in second and third place, with 109.8m and 61m of their respective shares being traded during 2022.

GCC equity markets once again outperformed their global peers during 2022 by posting a smaller decline during the year as compared to double digit declines for most major global markets.

The MSCI GCC Index declined by 6.4pc during the year after reporting one of the biggest gains globally during 2021.

The trend in the index showed consistent gains during Q1-2022, peaking during the second week of April 2022. Thereafter, the index largely showed a declining trend for the rest of the year.

The GCC index also mirrored the trend in oil prices with Brent trending south since June 2022.

At the country-level, the performance of individual markets in the GCC was mixed and Abu Dhabi was once again the best performer in the region posting a return of 20.3pc.

The GCC sector performance chart showed gains only for three sectors while ten of the remaining sectors saw double-digit declines.

Topping the yearly performance charts with a return of 21.2pc was the healthcare index followed by utilities and capital goods indices that reported gains of 9.9pc and 2.1pc, respectively.

On the flip-side, the pharma and biotech index saw the biggest decline during the year at 43.7pc followed by consumer durables and apparels and diversified financials index with double digit drops of 32.2pc and 21.9pc, respectively.

Trading activity during the year showed a uniform trend of higher trades in largecap stocks that resulted in a decline in volume traded but value traded showed strong growth in most markets.

Aggregate value traded was $686.7bn during the year versus $790bn in 2021 while volume traded reached 261.4bn shares during the year as compared to 309bn shares in 2021.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were the only markets that reported a decline in value traded while the rest of the markets showed healthy growth during the year.

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