Beirut SE: Blom (1 month) Current Year High: 1,526.31 Current Year Low: 1,168.36 The Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) weakened on local conditions in January, as Blom Bank’s BSI closed at 1,462.74 points on Jan. 25, representing a 3.1% drop week-on-week and a 2.6% retreat since the start of 2008. With futile political talks, another presidential election postponement, an assassination, orchestrated strikes and threats of more of the same, the panic moods and recession mongering elsewhere could not be much of a dampener for the hearty investors who were active on the BSE, although the index shed a few percentage points during the bad days. Overall, the picture for the BSE is as clear as the country’s political situation. Solidere implemented the withdrawal of its shares from the Kuwait Stock Exchange at the start of the year, where the cross-listed Solidere stock had been inactive for months. Effective Jan. 25, additional
