Doha: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index concluded this week’s trading, up by 0.140 percent, to add 14,250 points, compared to the end of last week’s trading, to stand at 10,271 points.
Tamer Hassan, financial analyst, expected QSE index to see significant gains in the coming period, especially after the Eid al-Adha holiday, with the support of purchases of foreign portfolios, considering this weekend’s session an indication of the direction that the general index will take in the coming period.
In remarks to QNA, Tamer Hassan described the transactions of the aforementioned session as typical, given the rates of the trading values, which exceeded QAR one billion, due to the review of the FTSE Russell index.
He attributed the positive performance of the index during the current week to a number of elements, including the beginning of the end of the tightening policy adopted by the US Federal Reserve by announcing fixing the interest rate for the coming period after ten consecutive increases, which prompted Qatar Central Bank to adopt the same approach and fix the interest rate, after raising it about 9 times during the last period.
Some of the so-called “active and passive” funds, which are under the pressure of the stability of US bonds and gold and the decline in US dollar prices, may find in the Qatari market and the shares of listed companies a profitable investment haven, given that the decline recorded in QSE index since the beginning of the year did not exceed 3.83 percent, despite the changes in the global markets, he said pointing that the companies’ “earnings multiple” reached 12 folds, the book value doubled about 1.4 times, and the return on investment reached about 5 percent, all of which contribute to the investors attraction of the Qatari market.
Hassan considered the decline in the inflation rate to 2.61 percent, which was lower than expected, to be an important element in driving the performance of the Qatar Stock Exchange in the coming period.
He pointed out that the index reaching the level of 10,271 points during the current week is considered an important milestone for foreign portfolios of price construction of some shares and enhance future acquisitions, especially for the shares of leading companies.
At the end of the week’s trading the market value amounted to QAR 611.442 billion, while the value of stock trading was about QAR 2.853 billion, through the sale of 1.040 billion shares, as a result of the implementation of 85,825 transactions in all sectors.
