Doha: Qatar Exchange index gained 28.08 points, or 0.24 percent, yesterday when it closed at 11,788.24 points.
The market capitalisation increased to QR618.52bn from QR617.99bn registered on Sunday.
The daily turnover increased to QR332.53m with a volume of over 12 million shares from 4,345 deals compared with QR302.20m with a volume of 12,706,114 shares from 3,597 deals on Sunday.
Indices of five sectors gained and two dropped. Insurance gained the most, up 1.76 percent to 4,685.57 points. QSE Total Return Index gained 0.24 percent.
From the 43 companies listed on QE, shares of 41 exchanged hands yesterday. From these 20 gained, 19 dropped and two remained unchanged.
Elsewhere in the region, Saudi Arabia’s stock market fell after disappointing third-quarter earnings at several companies, while Egypt rebounded from two days of losses because of worries about currency depreciation.
The main Saudi index lost 0.4 percent as industrial materials maker National Industrialisation Co (Tasnee) tumbled 8.0 percent after reporting a surprise quarterly loss, which it blamed on “lower average sales prices and lower sales volumes”.
Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden) slid 4.3 percent after reporting third-quarter net profit plunged 83.5 percent plunge to SR79.9m ($21.3m); analysts had forecast SR209m to SR265m.
Construction company Abdullah Abdul Mohsin Al Khodari and Sons sank 7.9 percent after recording a loss. It said new contract awards in the third quarter slumped to SR31m compared with SR554.6m of new work in the same period of 2014.
Buy-backs of petrochemical shares, which have been depressed by low oil prices, continued, helping Saudi Basic Industries to edge up 0.3 percent. National Petrochemical Co soared 9.5 percent after reporting a 31 percent jump in quarterly profit.
Other Gulf markets moved narrowly in modest volumes. Dubai’s index slipped 0.1 percent to 3,704 points. The biggest Dubai bank, Emirates NBD, sank 2.3 percent.
Abu Dhabi’s index rose 0.3 percent. Telecomms company Etisalat, which had risen 22 percent since late August, added a further 0.7 percent.
“It is increasingly certain that next year will see a slowdown in economic activity due to the double whammy of tightening fiscal and monetary policies,” Tarek Fadlallah, chief executive officer at Nomura Asset Management Middle East, said in a report.
“Companies are already feeling the affects of this multiple tightening phenomenon and it is now likely that GCC firms will experience a profit recession over the next few quarters.”
Egypt’s market rebounded 1.1 percent after dropping the two previous days. The central bank allowed the pound to weaken slightly, which investors think is a signal that another round of managed depreciation may be starting.
The pound’s official rate has dropped to 7.9301 per dollar from 7.7301 on Thursday. Some analysts think it may reach about 8.50 in coming months, as the central bank tries to correct the country’s endemic foreign exchange shortage. All of the 10 most heavily traded stocks were higher, however, suggesting investors have long expected the pound to weaken.
The Kuwait index rose 0.3 percent to 5,784 points, while the Oman index edged down 0.02 percent to 5,924 points.
The Bahrain index edged down 0.1 percent to 1,248 points.
QNA/Reuters
