The TUNINDEX closed up 0.62% at 15,528.1 points on Thursday, March 19, 2026, driven by a rally in banking and food retail stocks, even as global markets buckled under the oil crisis triggered by the Iran war. International hedge funds suffered their worst losses since "liberation day" according to market data, as global trade barriers disrupted commodity flows from metals to oil. However, Tunisia, a net energy importer, benefited from the temporary retreat in Brent crude, which fell 3.8% during the session to $103.3 per barrel, although prices remain up 3.1% for the week.
Key Figures for March 19, 2026
- TUNINDEX: 15,528.1 pts (+0.62%)
- BNA: +3.6% at 16.0 TND | ATB: -5.8% at 3.55 TND
- Monoprix: +4.5% at 7.97 TND (top performer)
- USD/TND: 2.91 (-0.43%)
- Brent: $103.3/bbl (-3.8%)
Market Context
The session displayed positive market breadth with 35 stocks advancing against 16 declining and 24 unchanged, out of 75 active listings, according to official BVMT data. The TUNINDEX20, tracking the twenty largest capitalizations, gained 0.57% to 6,896.62 points, confirming the resilience of Tunisian blue chips amid the commodity storm raging through international exchanges. The Tunisian dinar showed relative stability against the dollar, trading at (-0.43%), while the euro stood at (-0.36%), providing a calm foreign exchange environment for international investors.
