Doha: Qatar Exchange index dropped 30.57 points, or 0.26 percent to settle at 11,936.13 points yesterday.
The market capitalisation decreased to QR635.11bn from QR637.402bn registered on Monday.
The daily turnover rose to QR220.69m with a volume of 4,189,240 shares changing hands from 2,571 transactions compared with QR176.02m with a volume of 4,322,976 shares from 2,194 transactions registered on Monday.
Indices of two sectors gained marginally while five declined.
Telecoms index gained 0.54 percent when it closed at 1,165.43 points while banks and financial companies index edged up 0.08 percent to 3,162.53 points.
The Total Return Index dropped 0.26 percent to 18,553.01 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index dropped 0.47 percent to 4,627.71 points and QSE All Share Index dropped 0.26 percent to 3,195.61 points.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s stock market continued to slide yesterday, weighed down by foreign exchange worries, while Gulf bourses fell moderately after oil prices plunged.
The Cairo index, which has been in a downtrend for over a month and tumbled 4.2 percent on Monday, sank a further 1.5 percent to 7,753 points.
It had broken on Monday below major technical support between 8,125 and 8,261 points, the December and May lows. That triggered a bearish right triangle formed by the highs and lows since mid-December and pointing down to around 6,800 points in the longer term.
The market has been hit by foreign exchange and energy shortages, bloody clashes with militants in the Sinai, and a central bank decision to let the Egyptian pound resume depreciating last week.
Yesterday, the central bank held the pound steady at 7.73 to the US dollar at its foreign exchange auction, in an apparent attempt to reassure the market. But the pound continued weakening in the black market, suggesting investors think more depreciation is only a matter of time.
Property firm Emaar Misr fell 2.8 percent to 3.45 Egyptian pounds, though turnover shrank considerably from the past levels of the past two days.
Gulf stock markets fell only moderately on Tuesday, suggesting retail investors have become convinced regional economies can grow despite cheap oil.
The 25-day correlation between Brent crude and Dubai’s stock index has stayed below 0.3 for most of the time since the start of the June. The correlation with the Saudi stock index has been higher because of heavily weighted Saudi petrochemical shares, but it is still only just above 0.3.
The Saudi index fell 0.5 percent on Tuesday as petrochemical firm Saudi Basic Industries lost 1.9 percent.
Dubai’s index dropped 0.4 percent as Emaar Properties slipped 0.9 percent and construction firm Drake & Scull declined 2.3 percent. But Amlak Finance , a favourite of local retail investors seeking short-term profits, was the most heavily traded stock in Dubai and rose 0.8 percent.
Agencies
