Doha: Qatar Exchange pursued its upswing trend yesterday by adding 68.45 points, or 0.59 percent, to advance to 11,710.49 points from 11,642.04 on Sunday.
The volume of the shares traded fell to 14,412,615 from 15,811,411 on Sunday and the value of shares decreased to QR644,953,266.69 from QR929,454,918.50 on Sunday.
Among the top gainers were Qatar Islamic Bank which was up 0.93 percent to QR75.80, Ooredoo gained 0.93 percent to QR141.30, Vodafone Qatar added 0.25 percent to QR11.85 and Gulf International up by 2.30 percent to QR93.50.
The banking and financial sector index was gained 0.37 percent, while consumer goods and services sector index lost 0.82 percent. The industrial sector added 0.78 percent, while insurance sector lost 1.67 percent.
Elsewhere in the region, Egypt’s shares rose slightly yesterday after a deal between the country’s government and a Dubai builder for an affordable housing project worth 280bn Egyptian pounds ($40.2bn).
Cairo’s benchmark index advanced 0.5 percent, recovering early-session losses and boosting 2014 gains to 17.6 percent.
Under a deal with Cairo’s government, Dubai’s Arabtec will build one million homes in a project that will cover 160m square metres across 13 sites in Egypt for lower income individuals.
“People are a bit skeptical on the project,” said Mohamed Radwan, director of international sales at Pharos Securities. Some analysts said executing the colossal project could be a challenge.
“The scale of the project is... well beyond anything Arabtec has previously managed,” brokerage Arqaam Capital said in a note.
“It adds more value to Arabtec itself although there’s only a shallow performance in terms of magnitude.” Shares in Arabtec rose 1.7 percent.
Other UAE shares were choppy as investors looked for fresh catalysts after an early-year surge. Dubai’s measure climbed 0.2 percent, taking 2014 gains to 23.1 percent but has been trading sideways for three weeks.
Abu Dhabi’s index fell 1.0 percent to its lowest since February 9. The measure has also been range-bound, trading within a range of 200 points for four weeks.
“What you’re seeing now is short-term uncertainty — Q4 earnings are out and Q1 is a few weeks away so it’s a natural lull at this time,” said Sanyalaksna Manibhandu, senior analyst at NBAD Securities.
He cited catalysts such as an MSCI upgrade to the emerging market status that will take effect at the end of May, along with possible earnings momentum for the first quarter.
Some of the optimism over the upgrade has already been priced in, but there could be a further boost as index funds flow in upon implementation. Analysts estimate UAE and Qatar could both draw hundreds of millions of dollars in fresh investment thanks to the upgrade.
QNA & Reuters
