Tunis Stock Exchange — Basic Materials Rise 1.23% as SMART Tunisie Capital Move Lifts Focus
The TUNINDEX rose 0.66% on September 24, 2026, helped by a 1.23% gain in basic materials. SMART Tunisie’s reserve-backed capital increase also drew attention, adding a corporate action angle to the Tunisia stock market session.
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The TUNINDEX closed up 0.66% at 18,470.76 points on Thursday, September 24, 2026, while the TUNINDEX20 added 0.63% to 8,076.02 points. In the Tunis stock exchange today, the key takeaway was not just the broader market gain, but the outperformance of the Basic Materials Index, which rose 1.23% to 8,362.10 points, against a backdrop of regulatory announcements and a tougher macro environment for import-dependent companies. The session also drew attention because of SMART Tunisie, which announced a capital increase through the incorporation of reserves on September 23, 2026. According to the official market notice, the move does not bring fresh cash into the business, but it still matters because it reshapes the capital structure and can improve perceived liquidity in the stock. In a Tunisian market where capital operations are less frequent than on some regional exchanges, such a move is often read as a sign of confidence in accumulated earnings capacity.
- Brent crude: $101.73 per barrel (day: -1.3%, week: +1.4%)
Market context: broad gains, but selective leadership
The Tunisia stock market posted a constructive breadth profile, with 33 stocks up, 23 down, and 19 unchanged, meaning advancers led decliners across 75 listed names. That breadth supports the index move, even if gains were highly selective across sectors. Financials again underpinned the market, with the Banking Index up 0.63% at 13,793.02 points, the Financial Services Index up 0.18%, and the Insurance Index adding 0.47%. Sector rotation, however, was the more revealing feature of the day. The Industrials Index jumped 1.85%, ahead of the Distribution Index at +0.91%, the Consumer Services Index at +0.91%, and the Building and Construction Materials Index at +0.73%. By contrast, the Food and Beverage Index rose only 0.16%, despite a strong 32.57% year-to-date gain, while the Household and Personal Care Index remains down 8.87% in 2026. In other words, the market favored cyclical and domestic recovery names rather than segments that have already rerated sharply.
Basic materials: why the sector advanced despite dinar pressure
The sector story of the day came from basic materials, whose index rose 1.23% even as the currency backdrop turned more challenging. The US dollar traded at 2.9375 TND, up 2.69%, while the euro stood at 3.3394 TND, up 1.85%. For Tunisian industrial companies that import part of their inputs, that weaker dinar mechanically raises costs. Yet the sector’s gain suggests the market is differentiating between companies able to pass through costs, those with export exposure, and those still benefiting from resilient domestic demand. The external signal is also mixed. Brent crude remains above $100, at $101.73 per barrel, despite a daily decline of 1.3%. For Tunisia, a net energy importer, that level remains high and can weigh on the energy bill, the trade deficit, and eventually fiscal balances through subsidies. That helps explain why investors continue to favor companies with stronger pricing power or cost structures less exposed to imported energy. In that sense, the rise in basic materials was not just a technical bounce: it reflected a more selective reading of balance sheets in a still-costly operating environment. It is also worth placing the move in annual context. At +23.07% year-to-date, the Basic Materials Index still trails the TUNINDEX at +37.33%, the Banking Index at +42.64%, and especially the Insurance Index at +51.44%. So the sector is not the outright 2026 leader, but it is showing catch-up potential when the market looks for value pockets outside financials. That matters for any Tunisia market recap: today’s move looks more like rotation than a full change in market leadership.
SMART Tunisie: a capital operation that sharpened focus on the sector
The other key corporate story was SMART Tunisie, after its official announcement of a capital increase through the incorporation of reserves dated September 23, 2026. Based on the market communication, the operation converts part of accumulated reserves into share capital, usually through bonus shares. It does not change the company’s cash position, but it does send a signal about the strength of equity and management’s willingness to make the capital structure more transparent. In the Tunisian context, that matters more than it might elsewhere. News flow on the BVMT is heavily driven by regulatory filings under the oversight of the CMF, and capital operations are often treated as relative rerating catalysts, especially in a market where liquidity remains limited. For retail investors following the TUNINDEX index, the point is not to assume a mechanical price effect, but to understand what the move says about the company: a firm capitalizing reserves is showing that it has built up distributable or retained earnings, which can reinforce perceptions of financial quality. The announcement also came alongside disclosures or updates involving Tunis Re, Air Liquide Tunisie, SIMPAR, Tunisair, Tunisie Leasing, and Tunisie Valeurs. So beyond price action, the market had a meaningful amount of fundamental information to process. Sessions rich in regulatory notices are often the ones that provide the clearest signals for medium-term investors on the Tunis exchange.
Banks and financials: still the market’s backbone, but not in lockstep
Banks again provided the underlying support for the broader market, even if individual performances diverged. BH rose 4.6% to 14.20 TND, ranking among the day’s best performers, while BT gained 2.1% to 8.16 TND. By contrast, BIAT slipped 0.7% to 158.85 TND, UIB fell 0.9% to 32.70 TND, and STB dropped 2.4% to 4.97 TND. That dispersion shows the Banking Index’s0.63% rise was driven more by internal rotation than by indiscriminate buying. That distinction matters because Tunisian banks remain central to the market, with a 42.64% year-to-date gain, ahead of the broader index. In an environment where USD/TND and EUR/TND are rising, the macro picture cannot be separated from bank balance sheets: pressure on imports, energy costs, and public finances eventually feeds through to credit quality and deposit dynamics.
Other movers across the Tunis market
Outside financials, several names helped support the session. SOTETEL advanced 4.5% to 22.47 TND, ARTES rose 3.9% to 10.18 TND, CIL gained 3.6% to 37.80 TND, and MPBS added 3.2% to 10.00 TND. In retail, Magasin Général climbed 4.4% to 12.72 TND, while Monoprix rose 1.9% to 10.74 TND, in line with the sector index’s 0.91% gain. On the downside, SOTRAPIL fell 3.5% to 28.00 TND, ASSAD lost 4.1% to 2.11 TND, and STIP dropped 4.4% to 6.94 TND. For industrial and transport-linked names, the combination of still-elevated oil, natural gas up 8.5% to $3.28, and a weaker dinar remains a clear pressure point. Regionally, that commodity sensitivity sets Tunisia apart from markets driven more directly by mining or hydrocarbons. For context, our earlier piece on Bourse de Tunis — SOTEMAIL bondit de 4,2% malgré un TUNINDEX en baisse de 1,62% already showed how sharply individual stocks can diverge from the headline index move.
Outlook: regulatory filings and macro sensitivity remain central
