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2020-12-24
Sahem Weekly Trading Report (20-24)-12-2020
In the penultimate week of the end of an extraordinary year, Palestine Stock Exchange PEX witnessed movements between the investment positions, as what happens historically and routinely at the end of each year, in order to affect the investment evaluation. Whereby, two transactions of 0.89 million shares were executed on the stocks of the largest company in the PEX in terms of market capitalization – Palestine Telecommunications PALTEL- to constitute the largest stake from the PEX’s total trading value. On another hand, the leading stocks stood still with slight declines than their previous weekly closing levels. However, the anticipation grows for the year 2021 for the listed companies’ achieved financial results and dividends distribution announcements- either cash of stocks dividends- and what may follow of boosting in the market capitalization and improving in the market in general.
Regarding the substantial news, the general assembly GA of the Arab Palestinian Investment Company APIC held an extraordinary meeting on 22/12/2020, whereby, approved issuing 1.20 million shares from APIC’s authorized capital which reaches $100 million for private subscription to Mrs. Haifa Abu Rudaineh ( the wife of APIC’s board of directors member Mr. Bassam Abu Rudaineh), at an issuance price of $2.69/ per share which is calculated as the stock trading average for the last 28 days (from 22/11/2020 till 21/12/2020) in exchange for APIC’s ownership of Mrs. Haifa’s full stake in Unipal General Trading Company (APIC’s subsidiary). This comes in a two-part transaction: shares exchange and financial allowance, whereby, APIC’s paid-up capital will reach $96.20 million after this issuance. Also, the GA of APIC approved raising its subscribed capital from $100 million to $125 million with a nominal value of $1.00/per share.
Regarding the economic indicators and according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics PCBS and Palestine Monetary Authority PMA, the Palestinian economy was affected severely by the Coronavirus pandemic. Whereby, the Palestinian economy has recorded a sharp decline in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reaching 12% during 2020 compared to the year 2019, as most economic activities experienced setbacks in the value added leading; where the services activity recorded the highest drop value by 10%. The construction activity witnessed a decline of 35%, followed by the industry activity which showed a decline of 12%, and the agriculture activity which witnessed a decrease by 11%. This has led to a noticeable decrease in the GDP per capita and a rise in unemployment rates with new segments of the population entering the poverty cycle, where the unemployment rate increased from 26.3% in 2019 to 27.8% in 2020. In general, this caused a decline in the public demand on the consumption and gross investment indicators.
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