DOHA: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index witnessed gains for the second month albeit marginally with a growth of 0.9% in January-2025.
The QE 20 index closed the month at 10,666.7 points and has maintained a rising trend since the start of this year and surpassed the 10,600 level, buoyed by expectations of positive corporate earnings. The Qatar All Share Index witnessed a relatively smaller gain of 0.5% during the month, noted a report by Kamco Invest.
The sector performance chart also reflected the gains in the aggregate benchmark with all the sectors showing gains, barring the Banks & Financial Services index that showed decline of 2.2%, during the month.
The monthly sector performance chart was topped by Telecoms index with a gain of 12% followed by the Industrials and Insurance indices with gains of 3.2% and 2.3%, respectively. Both the stocks in the telecom sector recorded gains during the month with Vodafone Qatar reporting double-digit gain of 12.6%.
On the other hand, the Banks & Financial Services index reported the biggest decline during the month at 2.2%. In the Qatari Banking sector, shares of six out of nine banks reported a decline during January 2025.
Gains for the Industrial index was mainly led by shares of Qatar Aluminum Manufacturing and Qatari Investors Group which were up by 12.8% and 7.3%, respectively, during the month.
Trading activity improved during the month as compared to the previous month. Total volume traded increased by 33.3% to 3.2 billion shares in January-2025 versus 2.4 billion shares in December-2024. Value traded during the month also gained by 19.7% to reach QR8bn as compared to QR6.7bn during December-2024.
Ezdan Holding Group topped the monthly volume chart with 434.2 million traded shares followed by Qatar Aluminum Manufacturing Company and Baladna at 294.9 million shares and 175.5 million traded shares, respectively.
On the monthly value traded chart, QNB topped with shares worth QR0.9bn traded during the month followed by Industries Qatar and Dukhan Bank with value traded at QR0.52bn and QR0.50bn, respectively.
In full year earnings releases, QNB’s net profit reached QR16.7bn in 2024, up 8% compared to 2023, driven by 7% growth in loans and advances that reached QR911bn ($250bn) while customer deposits grew by 3% to reach QR887bn ($244bn). The board of QNB proposed a cash dividend payout ratio of 37% of nominal share value (QR0.37 per share) for H2-2024. Similarly, QIB’s net profit surged 7% in 2024 to reach QR4.6bn versus QR4.3bn and the board proposed a dividend distribution of QR0.55 per share.
Meanwhile, net profits for Commercial Bank of Qatar increased by 1% to QR3.03bn in 2024 from QR3.01bn in 2023 led by the 10.7% increase in net fees and commission income that reached QR891.9m.
The report also noted that the GCC equity markets started the year on a positive note, in line with most other global indices that witnessed gains at the start of the year, reversing the declines seen during December-2024. Kuwait was the best performing market in the GCC during the month with a gain of 5.7%, the biggest monthly gain in twelve months, highlighting gains across all segments on Boursa Kuwait.
