Beirut SE (1 year) Current Year High: 1,200.49 Current Year Low: 705.56 All things considered, the Beirut Stock Exchange outperformed its regional peers in 2009, when measured at the beginning of the year-end holiday season, which includes the Hajj pilgrimage, Christmas, and New Year. The BSE index gained over 41% by its 2009 Independence Day weekend (November 20), a performance achieved otherwise only by the Tunindex of the Tunisian bourse. But before speculating that their shared heritage from ancient Carthage and Berytus is an omen for the next conquest of global stock markets to be achieved by good Phoenician fortune, it is worth reviewing the BSE’s drivers of growth and assessing the Lebanese market’s necessary quests for the gains of 2009 to be meaningful for the real economy. The best performer in Lebanon in 2009 was the real estate firm Solidere, with gains above 55% in both share classes. Audi
