DOHA: A sudden gush of liquidity saw the trading value at the Qatari bourse up considerably yesterday as Qatari retail and institutional investors waiting for a while with cash ready to subscribe to the mega primary offer of Doha Global Investment, pumped funds back into the local stocks after Sunday’s announcement that the initial public offering (IPO) had been put off.
Trading volumes and value almost doubled yesterday compared with Sunday’s.
The trading value totalled an impressive QR516.42m across a little over 5,000 deals.
On Sunday, the trading volume was merely 7.6 million shares across 3,792 deals while the trading value stood at QR253.96m. Yesterday, the volume rose to 1.47 million shares.
An analyst not wanting his name in print said Qatari small investors had been offloading stocks to mobilise cash to subscribe to the mega IPO of Doha Global.
But it was announced on Sunday that the IPO was being postponed and no one now knew when it would be floated.
“So it is natural for the investors to put their money back into stocks,” said the analyst. That explains why the stocks were up today (yesterday).
Interestingly, although the trading value and volumes rose yesterday they did not reflect on the main benchmark index of the Qatar Exchange as it rose only 52 points (or less than a percent) to 8,900.25.
The market capitalization went up more than QR4bn but remained a little short of the magical figure of QR500bn, or $137.36bn (at QR499.39bn).
But prominent stock and financial analyst, Bashir Al Kahlout, told this newspaper that much should not be read into yesterday’s rise in trading volumes and value.
The increases were just because investors were focusing on a few prized stocks — one of them being Industries Qatar (IQ) — that saw the trading value and volumes up, he said.
“I don’t think investors who have been organizing cash to subscribe to the IPO of Doha Global are putting their money back into the market,” Al Kahlout told this newspaper.
The Peninsula
