Figures released by the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) indicate that trading volume reached 60,683,990 shares in the first seven months of 2018, constituting an increase of 28.8% from 47,103,683 shares traded in the same period of 2017; while aggregate turnover amounted to $448.6m, up by 10.6% from a turnover of $405.5m in the first seven months of 2017. Market capitalization regressed by 9.1% from the end of July 2017 to $10.3bn, with banking stocks accounting for 84.7% of the total, followed by real estate equities (11.6%), industrial shares (3.1%) and trading firms' equities (0.3%). The market liquidity ratio was 4.3% in the covered period compared to 3.6% in the first seven months of 2017.

Banking stocks accounted for 82.2% of the aggregate trading volume in the first seven months of 2018, followed by real estate equities with 15.2%, industrial shares with 2.2% and trading stocks with 0.4%. Also, banking stocks represented 78.1% of the aggregate value of shares traded, followed by real estate equities with 17.6%, industrial stocks with 4.1% and trading stocks with 0.2%. The average daily traded volume for the period was 433,457 shares for an average daily value of $3.2m. The figures reflect a rise of 29.8% in volume and an increase of 11.4% in value year-on-year in the first seven months of the year. In parallel, the Capital Markets Authority's Market Value-Weighted Index for stocks traded on the BSE dropped by 15.6% in the first seven months of 2018, while the CMA's Banks Market Value-Weighted Index regressed by 15.1% in the covered period.