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Measured recovery in the Exchange before opening trading to foreigners
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Translated by IRAQdirectory.com - [7/14/2007]
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Traders in the Iraqi financial market expected that the coming stage, before allowing non-Iraqis to trade in the exchange starting on the second of next August, may witness activity moving prices to ambitious levels, paving the way for wide participation by non-Iraqis; this started to show in this week's sessions characterized by unexpectedly high index levels. The banking sector, which has suffered price retreats during the last months, is leading the recovery, an indicator of stable and gradually rising values; the share price of "Bank North", which increased its capital last month from 25 to ID100 bn, jumped from one IQD to ID4.750 dinars in a week; shareholders disagree about the reason for this.
Exchange dealers expected this trend to continue in the market next month, especially given the expected increase in the number of weekly trading sessions, starting this week, followed by an increase in the number of executed contracts and thus an upturn in transaction volumes and share liquidity.
Sources close to the Stock Exchange spoke of the Board of Governors' success last year obtaining grant of over seven million dollars to automate trading, and pointed out that a Swedish company is carrying out the automation project which is expected to be completed before the end of the current year.
It should be noted that the market value of shares traded in 2006 fell from $2.136 bn in 2005 to $1.5 bn.
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