Doha: Qatar Exchange (QE) index fell 182.09 points yesterday when trading closed at 13,329.02 points. Trading volume increased to 9,748,287 shares from 5,421 transactions compared to 7,851,193 shares from 4,638 transactions on Tuesday.
The market capitalisation dropped to QR718.8bn from QR728.4bn on Tuesday. Indices of all sectors took a beating, barring insurance which went up slightly by 0.10 percent. The telecom sector index nose-dived 3.18 percent, the transport index went down by 2.50 percent, the consumer goods and service index fell by 1.81percent, the industries, real estate and the banking and financial services sectors dropped by 1.75 percent, 1.53 percent, and 0.63 percent respectively.
Of the 43 companies listed on QE, 39 declined, three went up and one remained unchanged. Qatari individual and institutional investors bought 56.60 percent of shares while 45.03 percent shares were sold. Islamic Holding rose 0.48 percent to QR124.60, Mannai Corp was up 1.04 percent to QR116.90 and Qatar General Insurance increased 2.80 percent to QR45.85.
Meanwhile, most stock markets in the Middle East continued to decline as global equities remained under pressure and disappointing quarterly earnings and forecasts weighed on bourses in Oman and Kuwait.
While selling of Gulf stocks in previous days was fairly indiscriminate, many oil-related shares suffered most yesterday as the price of Brent crude slipped to a fresh 47-month low, before recovering slightly to around $84 a barrel.
Lower oil prices are not a disaster for Gulf economies, which have little debt and large fiscal reserves that they can use to maintain government spending.
But the prospect of smaller state oil revenues is having some impact on investor sentiment in the region, and pulling down stocks such as petrochemical producers — which benefit from a cost advantage over foreign rivals when global oil prices are high — and companies serving the drilling industry.
Dubai’s index edged up in early trade after US and Asian stocks appeared to be stabilising, but changed direction when European markets opened in the red.
Dubai closed 1.7 percent down as most stocks fell. Dubai Islamic Bank dropped 3.6 percent. At 4,493 points, the Dubai index closed below its 200-day average at 4,557 points. Abu Dhabi’s benchmark edged down 0.2 percent.
Petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries dropped 3.6 percent and was the main drag on Saudi Arabia’s index, which fell 2.7 percent. The benchmark has now lost almost all of the gains it had made since July 22, when the kingdom’s regulator said it would allow direct foreign investment into local stocks in early 2015.
Egypt’s bourse was on outlier, edging up 0.2 percent. Kuwait’s main index fell 0.5 percent. Gulf Finance House dominated trading volume, tumbling 6.4 percent.
Oman’s index fell 0.9 percent, dragged down by poor third-quarter results.
HIGHLIGHTS
DUBAI: The index fell 1.7 percent to 4,493 points.
ABU DHABI: The index edged down 0.2 percent to 4,880 points.
SAUDI ARABIA: The index slid 2.7 percent to 9,903 points.
EGYPT: The index edged up 0.2 percent to 8,894 points.
KUWAIT: The index edged down 0.5 percent to 7,542 points.
OMAN: The index fell 0.9 percent to 7,104 points.
BAHRAIN: The index added 0.1 percent to 1,461 points.
QNA/Reuters
