New Index launched for Iraq Market

Investors in the Iraqi market have now a new index which they can incorporates both price changes and dividend incomes, allowing them a better understanding about their investment performance in public listed companies.  

Aysegul Ozge Ozgur, Head of Research at Rabee Securities said : “ We introduced a separate total return index to better cater to the market's needs. The new index, named the "RSISX Total Return (RSISXTR) Index incorporates both price changes and dividend incomes.:” 

Aysegual added: “ RSISXTR Index which was launched recently offers investors a comprehensive view of total returns and stands apart from the existing RSISX Index, which solely reflects price changes. Commencing its computation in 2021, the RSISXTR Index complements the longstanding price return index, the RSISX Index, which has been calculated since 2007. Notably, all other computational methods and assumptions remain consistent across both indexes.” 

When the performance of the 2 indexes is compared in the first 2 months of 2024, RSISX Index increased by 8.1% while RSISXTR Index increased by 8.9% because two companies decided to distribute dividends during the first two months of 2024; Iraqi for Seed Production (dividend yield: 8.7%) and Iraqi Agricultural Products Marketing Meat (dividend yield: 1.0%). 

In the first two months of 2024), the Rabee Securities Iraq Stock Exchange Index (RSISX Index) increased 8.1% in both USD and Iraqi Dinar (IQD) terms mainly due to the increase in share prices of National Bank of Iraq, Fallujah for Construction Materials, Commercial Bank of Iraq, and Asiacell. In 2M24, the share prices of 8 out of the 10 RSISX Index companies recorded an increase.  

The total trading volume of the ISX decreased 36% in 2M24 compared to 2M23 to USD102.2 million. Excluding the cross transactions, total trading volume almost doubled in the first two months, increasing 94% compared to the same period of the previous year to USD55.1 mn. The banking sector obtained the highest share in trading volume at 79.4%, followed by the industry sector (11.1% share), telecom sector (4.5% share), services sector (2.2% share), and hotels & tourism sector (2.0% share).

42 companies’ share prices grew in 2M24, 34 of which increased by 5.0% and more, while 22 increased by more than 10.0%. Al -Khazer for Construction Materials increased the most going up 86.9% during the 2M24, followed by Ashour Hotel with an 84.9% increase.