Doha: Qatar Exchange pursued its upswing trend yesterday, adding 47.96 points or 0.52 percent to advance to 9,287.18 points from 9,239.22 on Sunday.
The volume of the shares traded up to 15,948,853 from 13,212,495 on Sunday and the value of shares increased to QR475,499,384.27 from QR452,588,086.26 on Sunday.
Among the top gainers were Qatar National Bank which was up 1.10 percent to QR147.20, Electricity and Water rose 1.79 percent to QR147.60, Vodafone Qatar gained 1.61 percent to QR9.47 and Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development up by 1.16 percent to QR11.30.
The banking and financial sector index down up 0.67 points while consumer goods and services sector index gained 0.21 points. The industrial sector rose 0.57 points while insurance sector dropped 0.19 points.
Meanwhile Dubai’s rally stalled yesterday but trading volumes surged as investors chased expectations of a possible upgrade for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by index compiler MSCI. Saudi banks rallied to a 12-month high, helping lift the bourse.
Dubai’s index slipped 0.3 percent, easing off its 54-month high as investors booked profits after an intraday high of 2,500, which posed as technical resistance level. MSCI will announce next week whether it will upgrade the UAE to emerging market status. It currently ranks the country as a frontier market.
“International institutional investors are speculating on an MSCI upgrade,” said Mohammed Yasin, managing director of Abu Dhabi Financial Services. “The high volumes and the performance has attracted them.”
“I’m not worried about the levels, many stocks fundamentally justify the price and more, but the speed of the rally means we’re setting ourselves up for a correction,” Yasin added.
The number of shares changing hands reached 1.29 billion, the first time daily volumes exceeded a billion since June 2009.
Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia’s banking share index surges 2.5 percent to a one-year high, catching up with market gains on expectations that loans to telecom operator Zain Saudi will not have to be written off.
“Banks have been underperforming the market for more than two years... the rise is more technical rather than due to expectations of earnings,” said Mahmood Akbar, a banking analyst at NCB Capital.
Zain Saudi jumped 9.7 percent to an eight-month high after receiving government approval to defer licence-related fees totalling $1.49bn over seven years.
The operator has $3bn worth of loans maturing this month, including a $2.4bn Islamic facility arranged by Banque Saudi Fransi.
“Zain Saudi owed a large amount to banks and the government’s move today will encourage banks to solve the pending loans on their books,” said Abdullah Alawi, assistant general manager and head of research at Aljazira Capital. “People were worried the loan would hit Saudi Fransi.”
Shares in Banque Saudi Fransi rose 3.3 percent. “The agreement... to defer the licence (fees) was seen to be a positive for Saudi Fransi,” said Akbar.
“However, we note that Zain Saudi continues to negotiate for a breather period of two years where it does not pay interest on the loan and this could impact Saudi Fransi’s net interest margins.”
Agencies
