Doha: Qatar Exchange pursued its upswing trend yesterday adding 40.72 points, or 0.39 percent, to advance to 10,526.95 points from 10,486.23 on Thursday.
The volume of the shares traded was up to 10,292,912 from 9,970,989 on Thursday and the value of shares decreased to QR463,037,080.71 from QR535,760,960.27 on Thursday.
Among the top gainers were Commercial Bank of Qatar which was up 0.85 percent to QR71.30, Qatar Islamic Bank gained one percent to QR70.80, Vodafone Qatar added 0.44 percent to QR11.52 and Gulf International was up by 3.37 percent to QR61.40.
The Banking and Financial sector index added 0.12 points while Consumer Goods and Services sector index was up 0.07 points. The industrial sector was gained 0.93 points while insurance sector lost 0.30 points.
Meanwhile, most other major Arab stock markets rose yesterday as bets related to the Expo 2020 world’s fair boosted Dubai to a fresh five-year high, while Egypt rose after the government announced a date for a referendum on the country’s new constitution.
Mubasher Financial Services said in a report that Arab markets were benefiting from “a rerating against the backdrop of strong economic growth and abundant liquidity”.
It predicted further gains next year, particularly in Egypt — provided that political stability is restored — and in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; those two countries will be upgraded by MSCI to emerging market status next May.
Dubai has continued to climb since it won the right two weeks ago to host the Expo; real estate and construction-related shares that could benefit from Expo contracts rose once more on Sunday. Arabtec jumped 3.3 percent.
Many fund managers think the benefits from the Expo are now largely priced into stocks, but there is massive interest — some among foreign investors — in buying on dips, so the market has not entered any lasting correction.
This was seen in the performance of Emaar Properties yesterday. The company said it would discuss on Tuesday whether to convert bonds into shares, after bond holders asked for the conversion; Emaar issued a $500m convertible bond in 2010.
But the stock largely ignored the prospect of dilution. After opening slightly lower, it rose 0.3 percent in active trade to 7.38 dirhams.
Egypt continued its uptrend, gaining 1.1 percent to 6,679 points, its highest level since January 2011, when the political turmoil surrounding the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak was just beginning. It is being buoyed by expectations for improving political and economic stability; the index broke last week above 6,500 points, seen as a major resistance level.
Agencies
