Doha: Qatar Exchange pursued its upswing trend yesterday adding 391.63 points or 3.26 percent to close at 12,421.22 points from 12,029.59 on Sunday.
Among the top gainers were Qatar Islamic Bank which was up 7.46 percent to QR103.70, Qatar Insurance gained 5.03 percent to QR89.80, Gulf International added 9.95 percent to QR96.10 and Barwa Real Estate was up by 9.99 percent to QR42.90.
The banking and financial sector index was up 2.88 points while consumer goods and services sector index rose 1.49 points. The industrial sector gained 2.16 points while insurance sector added 4.96 points.
Property developer Ezdan Holding was the most heavily traded stock, rising 3.4 percent. “The recent sell-off in the Gulf has opened up opportunities in the Qatar market, given the undemanding valuations sparked by the current volatility,” Nick Wilson, chairman of London-listed Qatar Investment Fund, said in a note.
He estimated the Qatar index’s prospective price/earnings ratio at 13.7 times with a dividend yield of 4.4 percent, which he said was attractive given the fact that Qatar needs a relatively low oil price to balance its budget.
But Gulf Warehousing sank 0.6 percent to QR53 in active trade after its board proposed boosting the company’s capital by 25 percent via a rights issue to shareholders at QR40 per share.
Meanwhile, most Gulf equity markets continued rising but their uptrend slowed, suggesting the benefits of stabilising oil prices and expectations for a large Saudi Arabian state budget had now largely been factored into stocks.
The main Saudi index closed 0.3 percent higher, after jumping 16 percent over the previous three days. Turnover remained active but dropped by about a fifth from Sunday’s level.
Brent crude climbed. Analysts said Brent had received broad support after testing $60 a barrel earlier this month, and that a consensus was growing that prices would likely remain above that level for the rest of the year.
This has improved sentiment among Gulf stock market investors, even though the long-term outlook for oil prices remains murky and fresh falls cannot be ruled out next year.
Also, contrary to the stock markets’ earlier fears, Saudi Arabia’s 2015 budget is not expected to cut spending much if at all in response to the recent slide of oil prices.
Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf went out of his way to reassure the markets last Wednesday when he said his government would continue spending strongly on development projects and social benefits in the budget.
The budget was originally expected to be announced yesterday, but Saudi media reported the release would occur later this week, after a special cabinet meeting. The move saw profit-taking in some stocks which led the recent rally such as property developer Dar Al Arkan, which fell 0.8 percent and was again the most heavily traded Saudi stock. On Sunday, Dar Al Arkan had soared 9.3 percent.
But petrochemical producer Saudi Kayan, up 9.8 percent on Sunday, added a further 6.2 percent. Other major gainers included second- or third-tier stocks that had been neglected in the rally, such as Islamic insurer Solidarity , up 5.6 percent.
The Dubai index climbed 2.3 percent after jumping 9.9 percent on Sunday and 13 percent on Thursday. Bourse operator Dubai Financial Market soared 10.1 percent, a fresh sign that investors believe the bruising downtrend in Gulf equities of recent weeks has ended and that investor activity will revive.
Oman’s market climbed 3.7 percent. It has outperformed most of the Gulf since the executive president of the State General Reserve Fund, the country’s largest sovereign wealth fund, told Reuters at the end of last week that the SGRF had boosted its buying of shares in the local market because prices had slid to attractive levels.
The Tunisian market rose 0.6 percent, bringing its gains in the last four trading days to 3.7 percent, though it closed well off its intra-day high.
HIGHLIGHTS
DUBAI: The index rose 2.3 percent to 3,852 points.
ABU DHABI: The index fell 0.9 percent to 4,478 points.
SAUDI ARABIA: The index edged up 0.3 percent to 8,547 points.
EGYPT: The index edged up 0.2 percent to 8,703 points.
OMAN: The index climbed 3.7 percent to 6,219 points.
KUWAIT: The index rose 1.1 percent to 6,503 points.
BAHRAIN: The index edged down 0.3 percent to 1,406 points.
Reuters
