MANAMA: The Bahrain Bourse continued its declining trend into May-2020, and receded by 3.1% m-o-m basis, according to the Kamco Invest monthly report titled “GCC Markets Monthly Report for May 2020.”
The index close at 1269.63 points as sectoral index was negative. Commercial Banks were down by 4.0% m-o-m, followed by declines from Investment names (-2.6%) and Industrials companies (-2.1%). In YTD terms, barring the Insurance sector, all other sectors remain in the red as of end May-2020. Separately Bahrain Bourse introduced the Murabaha service for banks and corporates with the aim of meeting the growing needs of Interbank, corporate and retail clients, and supports Bahrain Bourse’s efforts to expand and diversify its provided services and cater to various market segments through a new and unique line of service. The Murabaha service is provided through the utilization of Sharia’a- compliant Ijara Sukuk, as the underlying asset for all the Murabaha transactions.
In Q1-20 earnings, Alba reported a net profit of BHD 5.7 Mn, up by 136% y-o-y from a loss of BHD 15.8 Mn for the same period in 2019. With regards to the Revenue from Contracts with Customers, Alba generated BHD 275.9 Mn in Q1-20, up 36% y-o-y versus BHD 203.5 in Q1-19. Alba’s top-line and bottom-line growth were driven by higher metal sales’ volume from Line 6 but impacted by lower LME price which were down by 9% y-o-y from USD 1,690/t in Q1-20 vs. USD 1,859/t in Q1-19. Sales’ volume came in at 379,274 MT up by 48% y-o-y, while Production was up 43% y-o-y at 388,637 MT. Investcorp announced the fully subscribed final closing of approximately EUR 340 Mn in commitments for its second vintage Italian Distressed Loan Fund II (“Italian NPL Fund II”), which is exclusively advised by Eidos Partners. To date, more than EUR 460 Mn in assets have been allocated toward Investcorp and Eidos Partners’ Italian non-performing loans (“NPLs”) strategy. Investcorp also mentioned that the company and Tages Group-an European alternative asset management firm have created a 50/50 joint JV through merging Investcorp’s Absolute Return Investments business and Tages Capital LLP, the absolute return subsidiary of Tages. In other corporate updates, Batelco announced that it has repaid in full USD 473 Mn of the outstanding senior unsecured bond issued by a subsidiary company and due on 1st May 2020. The USD 650 Mn bond was issued in 2013, with USD 177 Mn subsequently repurchased and redeemed and the USD 473 Mn repayment was mainly funded through a USD 450 Mn term loan facility.
Trading activity however was mixed, as volumes decreased by 59.1% m-o-m to reach 59.9 Mn shares. Value traded improved by 15.2% m- o-m and reached BHD 24.5 Mn. The number of trades made in the exchange also decreased to 680 trades, down 26.6% m-o-m from Mar- 2020. National Bank of Bahrain was the most actively traded stock in May-2020 with BHD 12.67 Mn worth of its shares traded on the exchange. AUB and GFH followed with BHD 7.07 Mn and BHD 1.80 Mn worth of shares traded. In terms of volumes traded, National Bank of Bahrain was the most active stock as 21.04 Mn shares were traded, followed by GFH and AUB with 12.5 Mn and 12.1 Mn shares respectively. There were no gainers on the exchange for the month of May-2020. Bahrain Duty Free Complex was the main laggard, as it witnessed a m-o-m decline of 17.7% m-o-m, followed by GFH and Khaleeji Commercial Bank with monthly declines of 10.6% and 7.3% respectively.
