Doha: Qatar Exchange ended its losing streak yesterday adding 24.87 points or 0.30 percent to advance to 8,353.95 points from 8,329.08 on the previous day.
The volume of the shares traded up to 2,807,684 from 2,595,170 on Monday and the value of shares increased to QR136,180,247.95 from QR113,831,321.11 on Monday.
Among the top gainers were Qatar National Bank which was up 0.23 percent to QR130, Industries Qatar rose 0.60 percent to QR151.90, Qatar Insurance gained 2.26 percent to QR68.00 and Doha Bank was up by 0.79 percent to QR50.90.
The banking and financial sector index added 50.13 points while consumer goods and services sector index dropped 10.80 points. The industrial sector rose 8.63 points while insurance sector up 27.96 points.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s bourse rallied yesterday as regional institutional investors bought shares after the Supreme Judicial Council cleared the way for a vote on a new constitution, while other Gulf markets closed mixed.
Cairo’s benchmark, trading volatile since Mursi’s decree on November 22 that expanded his powers and sparked widespread protests, jumped 3.5 percent.
Some judges had called for their colleagues to shun the December 15 plebiscite, which must be supervised by the judiciary like all elections in Egypt. But the council’s decision suggests enough officials can be mobilised to oversee the vote.
“It seems that everyone is betting the referendum is going to go through and the political dispute will be over in the next two weeks,” said Mohamed Radwan at Pharos Securities. “The draft is not appealing to a lot of people but investors outside of Egypt just want things to move ahead.”
Regional Arab institutional investors were net buyers on the main benchmark against Egyptian net sellers, bourse data shows.
All except one stock gained. Commercial International Bank climbed 4.4 percent, Orascom Construction Industries rose 5.9 percent and National Societe Generale Bank surged 7.4 percent.
Elsewhere, large-caps dragged Saudi Arabia’s index from a two-week high, closing 0.2 percent lower.
The bourse fell to a 10-month low on November 27 as regional tensions and worries over the king’s health weighed.
Petrochemical and banking shares weighed with Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) and Al Rajhi Bank each declining 0.8 percent.
Many analysts claim stock valuations are attractive at current levels, but a lack of a catalyst in the short-term will likely keep the market flat until year-end.
“From a fundamental point of view, prices are cheap,” said Alhassan Goussous, chief executive officer at Bakheet Investment Group. “There are a lot of reserves for spending on major projects in Saudi Arabia that are supporting the market and will continue to do so. But we’re coming into a quiet period of the year and I don’t see the market moving much in either way.”
Elsewhere, UAE markets extended gains on the first day of trading after a long-weekend, but investors booked most of the intraday profits on Dubai’s measure.
Courier firm Aramex climbed one percent. The stock jumped 14.4 percent mid-session on what traders say was a technical error.
Agencies
