Figures released by the Arab Federation of Exchanges show that market activity on the Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) increased by 0.25% in the fourth quarter of 2018 from the previous quarter, constituting, along with the Casablanca Stock Exchange, the third highest performance among 16 Arab equity markets. In addition, the BSE underperformed the global equity markets (+6%), but it outperformed Arab equity markets that posted flat growth, as well as the stocks of emerging markets that declined by 7.84% quarter-on-quarter. In parallel, activity on the BSE dropped by 15% from the fourth quarter of 2017, constituting the third steepest decline in the region.

The BSE posted higher returns than the Palestine Exchange (+0.1%), the Bahrain Bourse (-0.1%), the Damascus Securities Exchange (-0.24%), the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (-0.41%), the Saudi Stock Exchange (-2.16%), the Boursa Kuwait (-2.83%), the Amman Stock Exchange (-3.38%), the Iraq Stock Exchange (-4.13%), the Muscat Securities Market (-4.84%), the Tunis Bourse (-6.8%), the Dubai Financial Market (-10.77%), and the Egyptian Exchange (-10.81%). In contrast, the BSE underperformed the Khartoum Stock Exchange (+7.83%), and the Qatar Stock Exchange (+4.95%).

In parallel, the market capitalization of the BSE reached $9.68bn at the end of 2018 and accounted for 0.8% of the aggregate market capitalization of Arab stock markets. It was higher than the market capitalization of the Iraq Stock Exchange ($9.46bn), the Tunis Bourse ($8.14bn), the Palestine Exchange ($3.73bn), the Damascus Securities Exchange ($1.52bn), and the Khartoum Stock Exchange ($1bn).