Baghdad Stock Exchange reports active trade despite mounting violence

 

By Asmaa Abeed

 

Azzaman, 2004-09-23

 

If volume of trade at the Baghdad Stock Exchange is a measure, then many Iraqis will still have confidence in a bright future.

 

Ignoring car bomb attacks and roadside bombs, traders flock to Baghdad Stock Exchange twice a week for trade which this week saw a new pharmaceutical company sprout up.

 

In the four-hour trading session more than 400 million shares were traded in the bourse which had remained closed for almost a year after the fall of Baghdad to US troops.

 

Baghdad traders say volume is almost equal to pre-war levels when more than 100 companies were listed.

 

Volume in dinars surpassed 4 billion dinars for the first session of the week with the agricultural sector touching the highest record since the bourse was established 10 years ago.

 

Agricultural companies and banking dominated trade, with 212,785,692 shares exchanging hands in the former and 166,350,750 in the latter.

 

Traders have shown a keen interest in the newly founded al-Hukma Pharmaceuticals.

 

More than 112 million shares of the company were sold during the session.