Doha: Qatar Exchange ended in the green yesterday adding 6.39 points or 0.05 percent to 12,460.15 points from 12,453.76 on Thursday.
Qatar National Bank and Industries Qatar partly recovered from short-term weakness caused by changes in the FTSE frontier market index last week. Shares in QNB and Industries Qatar added 1.1 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.
Qatar National Bank was up 1.14 percent to QR178, Commercial Bank of Qatar gained 0.15 percent to QR65.60, Doha Bank added 1.37 percent to QR59.30 and Gulf International was up by 0.96 percent to QR95.
In a June 20 review, FTSE removed seven stocks with a combined market capitalisation of $8.2bn from the index and replaced them with seven stocks that have a combined capitalisation of $28bn, reducing the weightings of other components, including the Qatari stocks.
Before the reshuffle, the index had a total capitalisation of $66.7bn, implying constituents that remained in the index had their weightings reduced by about a quarter. But since very large amounts of money are not benchmarked to the FTSE frontier market index, the impact on fund flows was not large.
Meanwhile, uncertainty about the future of Dubai contractor Arabtec Holding put local investors in a bearish mood yesterday, affecting the whole market, which ended a three-day gaining streak. Most Gulf markets moved little on declining volumes.
Shares in Arabtec tumbled 9.9 percent after failing to hold on to early-session gains and were among the main drags on the Dubai benchmark, which fell 2.3 percent after going up as much as 1.0 percent shortly after the opening.
Arabtec shares have plunged 43 percent this month after one of its main shareholders, Abu Dhabi state fund Aabar Investments, reduced its stake in the firm to 18.94 percent from 21.57 percent.
The shares became more stable after Arabtec chief executive Hasan Ismaik resigned last week and an Aabar-linked executive became acting CEO, but analysts say investors are still waiting for a clear message from the fund on its strategy.
Property and construction stocks, which dominate the emirate’s stock market, were down. Emaar Properties fell 3.4 percent, Deyaar Development slid 2.5 percent and Union Properties fell 1.3 percent.
Shares in construction firm Drake and Scull, which surged last week on news that it would issue a convertible bond to a strategic investor, also retreated after touching an all-time high of 1.97 dirhams. They slid 3.2 percent to 1.84 dirhams.
Abu Dhabi’s bourse closed flat on a mixed performance by blue chips in low volume. National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Aldar Properties fell 1.7 and 2.0 percent respectively, while First Gulf Bank rose 1.6 percent and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank added 1.5 percent.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is traditionally a period of lower market activity, will begin next week and this may already be affecting bourses across the region.
Heavy fighting in Iraq is another factor deterring some investors from opening new positions. Shares in Abu Dhabi National Energy Company and Dana Gas, both of which have operations in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, fell 0.9 and 1.3 percent. They have so far not announced any damage to those operations.
Mobile phone operator Zain Kuwait, which is also heavily exposed to Iraq, slipped 1.6 percent, limiting the blue-chip benchmark index’s rise to 0.3 percent. The wider index, however, added 1.2 percent as small-caps continued to recover from last week’s slump.
Shares in Egypt’s Beltone Financial Holding slid 3.5 percent as the offer period started for the 20 percent stake in EFG Hermes, which a consortium including Beltone and Egyptian billionaire tycoon Naguib Sawiris seeks to buy.
The offer to buy EFG Hermes shares at 16 pounds will run until July 3, according to an EFG statement sent to the bourse. EFG Hermes was flat at 15.35 pounds while the Cairo index slipped 0.3 percent.
Saudi Arabia’s Almarai edged down 0.2 percent after the Gulf’s biggest dairy company said it would invest, together with US soft drinks giant PepsiCo, at least $345 million in Egypt over the next five years. The stock under performed the Saudi index, which climbed 0.1 percent.
HIGHLIGHTS
DUBAI: The index fell 2.3 percent to 4,490 points.
ABU DHABI: The index was flat at 4,804 points.
SAUDI ARABIA: The index rose 0.1 percent to 9,657 points.
KUWAIT: The index rose 1.2 percent to 7,024 points.
EGYPT: The index slipped 0.3 percent to 8,316 points.
BAHRAIN: The index fell 0.3 percent to 1,430 points.
OMAN: The index rose 0.04 percent to 6,916 points.
Reuters
