Doha: Qatar Exchange was slightly up yesterday adding 0.50 points or 0.01 percent to advance to 8,565.34 points from 8,564.84 on Sunday.
The volume of the shares traded up to 3,113,526 from 2,889,555 on Sunday and the value of shares increased to QR159,442,072.27 from QR149,219,307.68 on Sunday.
Among the top gainers were Qatar National Bank which was up 0.37 percent to QR134.00, Commercial Bank of Qatar rose 0.69 percent to QR72.90, International Islamic Bank gained 0.57 percent to QR52.80 and Gulf warehousing Company up by 0.50 percent to QR40.35.
The banking and financial sector index lost 2.79 points while consumer goods and services sector index dropped 43.27 points. The industrial sector down 3.46 points while insurance sector fell 13.01 points.
Meanwhile, Kuwait’s market made its largest one-day gain in eight months yesterday, rebounding from an eight-year low as investor confidence improved after a political protest was less violent than investors had feared, while other Gulf bourses ended mixed.
Kuwaiti security forces fired tear gas to disperse an unauthorised demonstration on Sunday by thousands of opposition supporters. The country will hold parliamentary elections on December 1.
“I doubt there will be demonstrations until the elections — that’s giving relief to small investors to put money back into the market,” said Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage at Global Investment House.
The index finished 1.6 percent higher, gaining the most in a single session since February 19.
Market participants say the government has been buying local shares through a state-linked fund, which was set up to support the bourse during slumps.
“If the government maintains buying through the national portfolio fund, it will help catapult the market,” Darwish added.
Large-caps rallied, with National Bank of Kuwait up one percent, telecoms operator Zain gaining 1.4 percent and logistics firm Agility rising 2.1 percent.
In Saudi Arabia, the index climbed for a fourth-straight session, up 0.4 percent. Small-cap stocks led gains as investors skirt risk ahead of tomorrow’s US elections.
Retail investors targeted stocks driven by domestic demand, rather than those more affected by global sentiment.
Insurance stocks dominated trade, accounting for nearly half the market turnover of SR5.4m. The sector’s index slipped 0.5 percent.
Almarai Co climbed 1.1 percent after announcing plans to issue the second tranche of a riyal-denominated Islamic bond programme in the coming months to private investors.
The banking sector index and petrochemical benchmark added 0.7 and 0.2 percent respectively.
Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi’s benchmark slipped 0.3 percent, its second-straight decline since Thursday’s 15-month high.
Dana Gas ended 2.4 percent lower at Dh0.41, having slumped as much as 7.3 percent intraday. The stock accounted for nearly half of all shares traded on the bourse.
The natural gas producer failed to repay a $920m sukuk on maturity last week, prompting a source close to holders of the bond to say they will stake claim Dana’s extensive Egyptian assets.
Dana said in a statement after trading it was unaware of any action by bondholders against the firm.
“It’s no surprise that creditors will enforce the security on the sukuk. Egypt assets were the recourse on the sukuk in case of default,” said Anastasios Dalgiannakis, institutional trading manager at Mubasher.
Agencies
