Baghdad, Iraq — In January 2023, Rabee Securities Iraq Stock Exchange Index increased by 5.0% due to the increase in share prices of all companies in the index except Baghdad Soft Drinks (-6.7%), which has the largest weight in the index.
Al-Mansour Pharmaceutical Industries had the highest increase among the index companies with +41.8%, followed by National Bank of Iraq +19.1%. The index decreased by 5.0% in USD terms, because of the depreciation of the Iraqi Dinar (IQD) against the USD.
The total trading volume of the ISX increased significantly by 227% in January 2023 compared to December 2022 to USD38.9 million while excluding the cross transactions, the monthly trading volume showed a 48.4% increase, as well. The banking sector had the highest share in trading volume with 72.4% with the contribution of the high cross transaction, followed by the industry sector (12.4% share), the telecom sector (4.4% share), the hotels & tourism sector (3.9% share), the agriculture sector (3.7% share) and the services sector (3.0% share). Foreigners’ share in total trading volume decreased slightly from 4.5% in January 2022 to 4.4% in January 2023.
On another positive note, thirty-five companies’ share prices went up in January, of which 24 increased by more than 5%, while 15 increased by more than 10%. Iraqi Engineering Works increased the most going up +87.0% during the month, followed by Al-Sadeer Hotel which increased by 60.0%.
