Doha: Qatar Exchange index closed higher yesterday, up 15.02 points or 0.11 percent to 13,744.80 points. The trading value dropped QR627.94m from QR666.4m registered on Thursday. The trading volume dropped to 10,085,297 shares from 6,204 transactions compared to 11,088,790 shares from 6,363 transactions on Thursday.
The market capitalisation increased to QR743.92bn from QR742.41bn on Thursday. The real estate sector index gained the most, up 0.85 percent. The transport index dropped 1.27 percent followed by telecoms at 0.91 percent and the insurance index down marginally by 0.03 percent.
Of the 43 companies listed, shares of 23 went down, 16 advanced and four remained unchanged. National Cement Company continued its green run, adding QR3.30 or 2.44 percent. Qatar Cinema and Film Distribution Company share was the top gainer in percentage terms, up 9.89 percent to QR47.80.
Two real estate companies made gains while two declined. Barwa was up 2.76 percent to
QR52.10 and Ezdan increased 0.47 percent to QR19.29. The shares of United Development Company dipped 0.74 percent to QR26.75 while Mazaya Qatar dropped 1.16 percent to QR23.92.
Meanwhile, construction firm Arabtec dragged down Dubai’s bourse after missing third-quarter profit estimates, while Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden) weighed on the kingdom’s market ahead of a discounted rights issue.
Dubai’s index fell 1.2 percent as Arabtec tumbled 5.9 percent. The firm reported a 32 percent drop in third-quarter net profit to Dh68.7m ($18.7m) in the three months to September 30.
Analysts at Global Investment House and SICO Bahrain had forecast it would make a quarterly profit of Dh113m and Dh139.9m respectively. Arabtec’s quarterly revenue was Dh2.4bn, up from Dh1.94bn a year earlier, but general and administrative expenses rose 89 percent to Dh241.6m over the same period.
Arabtec shares climbed 11.5 percent last week as Abu Dhabi state fund Aabar Investments raised its stake in the firm to 34.9 percent by buying shares held by former chief executive Hassan Ismaik, who abruptly resigned in June after differences of opinion with Aabar. Abu Dhabi’s benchmark edged up 0.2 percent, largely on the back of National Bank of Abu Dhabi, which jumped 3.7 percent.
Shares in energy firm Dana Gas surged 4.8 percent after Egypt’s oil ministry said on Thursday that it planned to repay all of its $4.9bn debt to foreign oil and gas companies - Dana Gas among them - within six months.
Kuwait’s index fell 1.3 percent as most shares declined. The bourse suspended trading in the shares of 18 companies that had failed to disclose third-quarter earnings in time.
That, along with the continuing decline in oil prices and profit-taking seen in the region’s major markets such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia, has kept many investors from opening new positions in Kuwait, said Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage services at Global Investment House in that country.
Boubyan Petrochemical Co slid 2.8 percent and Qurain Petrochemical Industries lost 1.8 percent. Late last week US petrochemicals giant Dow Chemical Co said it would sell off its stake in Equate, its joint venture with those two firms and the Kuwaiti government’s Petrochemical Industries Co.
Saudi Arabia’s main index fell 1.3 percent. Shares in Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden) were among the main drags after Ma’aden said yesterday that the subscription period for its SR5.6bn ($1.5bn) rights issue would start on Tuesday and trading in the rights opened.
The bourse cut Ma’aden’s share price by 7.5 percent from last Thursday’s closing to reflect the dilution; the price then dropped 2.9 percent to SR32.30 during the session. At SR23 per share, the rights offer price is much cheaper than the market price, so some investors were tempted to sell in the market and buy back via the rights.
Egypt’s index edged down 0.3 percent, largely because of Telecom Egypt and Global Telecom, which dropped 3.2 and 2.5 percent respectively. Both companies reported third-quarter results last week that missed analysts’ estimates.
HIGHLIGHTS
DUBAI: The index fell 1.2 percent to 4,603 points.
ABU DHABI: The index edged up 0.2 percent to 4,963 points.
SAUDI ARABIA: The index slid 1.3 percent to 9,554 points.
EGYPT: The index edged down 0.3 percent to 9,231 points.
KUWAIT: The index fell 1.3 percent to 7,108 points.
OMAN: The index climbed 0.5 percent to 7,046 points.
BAHRAIN: The index rose 1.2 percent to 1,447 points.
QNA/Reuters
