Building on a robust 5.5 per cent gain in 2022, the Bahrain Bourse All Share Index extended its winning streak to three years, rising 4pc in 2023.

Bahrain was the third-best performing market in the GCC during 2023.

The index wrapped the year at 1,971.49 points. During the year, the benchmark reached its highest point towards the end of July 2023 at 1,992.41 points.

However, the index declined for the next three months only to show partial recovery during November 2023 and December 2023.

Sectoral performance was mixed between gainers and decliners but skewed to the upside.

Five of the seven indices of the bourse ended in the green during the year as compared to two in the red.

The consumer discretionary sector recorded the largest yearly growth in the exchange with an uptick of 5.1pc followed by the materials sector that rose 5pc to close the year at 5,260.3 points.

The latter has only one constituent company, Alba whose share price jump underlined the aluminium smelter’s robust financial performance during the year.

Nass Corp led the Bahrain Bourse chart of gainers recording a 164.1pc surge in share price during 2023.

Al Salam Bank Bahrain and Arab Insurance Group followed as the second and third biggest winners registering 110pc and 81.8pc share price rise, respectively.

Among decliners, Bahrain Commercial Facilities topped the table posting 49.8pc year-on-year fall in share price followed by Inovest and Bahrain Car Park Company with 49.3pc and 28.6pc drops in their share prices, respectively.

Trading activity in the Bahrain Bourse increased sharply during 2023 with total value traded boosted by 24.1pc to BD210.7m from BD169.8m during 2022.

Similarly, total yearly volume traded jumped 45.4pc from 169.8m in 2022 to 210.7m shares during 2023.

Alba topped the yearly value traded chart with BD72.8m worth of its shares changing hands followed by Al Salam Bank Bahrain and GFH Financial Group which saw BD45.7m and BD44.1m worth of shares traded, respectively.

In terms of volume traded, Al Salam Bank Bahrain lead with 290.8m of shares being bought during the year.

GFH Financial Group and Alba followed witnessing 170.4m and 65.8m of their respective shares being traded during 2023.

Zooming out, GCC equity markets closed 2023 with one of the smallest annual gains globally, underperforming most global equity markets.

The MSCI GCC index closed the year at 714.69 points registering a gain of 3.7pc after recording mixed performance at the country level.

The trend in the index showed volatile performance during the year. Out of the seven exchanges, four recorded gains while three closed in the red.

Dubai was the best performing market in the region with a gain of 21.7pc followed by Saudi Arabia, also with a double-digit gain of 14.2pc.

The GCC sector performance chart showed gains across the board with all sectors in the green. The pharma (+75.8pc), insurance (+57.9pc) and healthcare (+37.7pc) indices topped yearly performance while heavyweight sectors like banks and energy showed relatively smaller returns of 6.1pc and 20pc, respectively.

 

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