Figures released by the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) indicate that trading volume reached 52,743,268 shares in the first five months of 2018, constituting an increase of 42.1% from 37,130,048 shares traded in the same period of 2017; while aggregate turnover amounted to $386.6m, up by 28.5% from a turnover of $300.8m in the first five months of 2017. Market capitalization regressed by 6.4% from the end of May 2017 to $11bn, with banking stocks accounting for 84.3% of the total, followed by real estate equities (12.4%), industrial shares (2.9%) and trading firms' equities (0.3%). The market liquidity ratio was 3.5% in the covered period compared to 2.6% in the first five months of 2017.

Banking stocks accounted for 83.1% of the aggregate trading volume in the first five months of 2018, followed by real estate equities with 14.4%, industrial shares with 2.4% and trading stocks with 0.1%. Also, banking stocks represented 78.2% of the aggregate value of shares traded, followed by real estate equities with 17.2%, industrial stocks with 4.5% and trading stocks with 0.03%. The average daily traded volume for the period was 538,197 shares for an average daily value of $3.9m. The figures reflect a rise of 44.9% in volume and an increase of 31.2% in value year-on-year in the first five months of the year. In parallel, the Capital Markets Authority's Market Value-Weighted Index for stocks traded on the BSE regressed by 2.8% in the first five months of 2018, while the CMA's Banks Market Value-Weighted Index dropped by 7.3% in the covered period.