Doha: Qatar Exchange index lost 17.98 points, or 0.19 percent, to 9,608.32 points from the previous closing of 9,626.30 points.
The volume of the shares rose to 7,602,150 from 6,733,015 on Sunday and the value of shares increased to QR283,435,018.69 from QR278,500,585.62 on Sunday.
Among the top losers were Qatar National Bank whose share dropped 0.42 percent to QR166.80, Barwa Real Estate lost 0.79 percent to QR25.00, Al khalij Commercial Bank fell 0.33 percent to QR18.30 and Qatar Navigation down by 0.86 percent to QR80.30.
The Banking and Financial sector index dropped 0.09 points while Consumer Goods and Services sector index added 0.45 points. The industrial sector was down 0.05 points while insurance sector lost 0.43 points.
Meanwhile, most regional markets slipped yesterday as fears of a US government shutdown spurred slight profit-taking, but Dubai’s bourse booked its biggest quarterly gain in nearly six years.
Dubai’s index shed 0.3 percent, easing off Sunday’s near five-year high. That trimmed its third-quarter gain to 24.3 percent, its best performance since late 2007. Trading volume in the quarter was the highest in four years.
Shares in Dubai were boosted during the quarter by heavy retail investor activity after index compiler MSCI upgraded the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to emerging market status, which is expected to bring in fresh funds worth about $500m to each country.
A recovery in the local real estate market, and expectations that Dubai will this November win the right to host the World Expo 2020, are also buoying the market, which is up 70 percent year-to-date.
“There’s some pull-back, mainly on uncertainty about increasing allocations with the fears affecting international markets,” Marwan Shurrab, fund manager and head of trading at Vision Investments, said of Monday’s trade.
A Reuters survey of fund managers published on Monday found many wary of the size of Dubai’s gains, with a plurality saying they expected to reduce allocations to the emirate in the next three months.
But retail investor interest in Dubai is so high that its momentum may continue for a while. It again outperformed global markets on Monday; MSCI’s emerging market index was down 1.2 percent.
Despite the global jitters, “I see the markets continuing their major uptrend going into year-end, supported by key factors like Q3 earnings. Expect to see more inflows with regards to MSCI emerging market positioning,” Shurrab added.
In Saudi Arabia, the index ticked up 0.2 percent from a two-week low, bucking a downbeat regional trend. It climbed for a third consecutive quarter, gaining 6.2 percent in the three months - its strongest quarterly rise since early 2012.
In Egypt, the benchmark index fell 0.8 percent to 5,621 points, extending declines from Thursday’s seven-month high. It failed to confirm a break of chart resistance at 5,682 points, the August peak.
“We saw some healthy profit-taking after the strong run we had,” said Islam Batrawy, deputy director of sales and trading at Egypt’s Naeem Brokerage. “People are taking some cash off, plus we tracked the selling pressure from global markets.
Agencies
