Regional equity markets

Beirut SE   Current year high: 1,200.49    Current year low: 991.49 >  Review period: Closed July 23 at 1010.55 points                            Period change: -5.2% The MSCI Lebanon index continued trending flat with a downward bias in the early part of July but then dropped sharply in the latter part of the review period, making the Beirut Stock Exchange the weakest performer among MENA bourses. Much of the downward trend was focused on the real estate sector and its dominant stock, Solidere. The two-tiered scrip weakened by 8.1% and 8.7% in the review period, with most of that drop an ex-dividend allocation on July 14. Stocks in the banking sector also mostly fell; only Bank of Beirut closed the period with a marginal gain. Amman SE   Current year high: 2,693.91                Current year low: 2,303.44 > Review period: Closed July 22 at 2,307.87 points              Period change: -1.7% The Levant stock exchanges were notable