Doha: Qatar Exchange pursued its upswing trend yesterday adding 17.11 points, or 0.15 percent, to advance to 11,418.76 points from 11,401.65 on Sunday.
The volume of the shares traded up to 15,391,745 from 14,644,221 on Monday and the value of shares increased to QR779,921,303.34 from QR689,574,299.79 Monday.
Among the top gainers were Qatar Insurance, which was up 0.79 percent to QR64, Doha Bank gained 0.70 percent to QR57.20, Vodafone Qatar added 0.65 percent to QR12.30 and Gulf International was up by 7.11 percent to QR84.40.
The banking and financial sector index lost 0.55 percent, while consumer goods and services sector index gained 0.50 percent. The industrial sector added 1.64 percent, while insurance sector up 2 percent.
Elsewhere in the region, Dubai’s Emaar Properties broke major chart resistance to lift the emirate’s stock market index yesterday for a third straight session, while most Gulf markets rose as global jitters over the Ukraine crisis partially eased.
Emaar jumped 5.4 percent to Dh9.75 in its heaviest trading volume since April 2012, confirming a break above Dh9.16-9.20, the February and March highs.
Shares in Emaar have been gaining since the company at the weekend announced a higher 2013 dividend and a plan to list its shopping mall unit. They were boosted further yesterday, when Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar was quoted as saying in a magazine interview that the unit would list in both Dubai and London, and aimed to do so before end-June. The stock faces another barrier at Dh9.75 and then at Dh10.50, according to NBAD Securities. “Any break over Dh10.60 shall ignite further buying towards Dh12-15 in the long term,” the brokerage said in a note.
Many analysts have fair-value estimates for Emaar above Dh10. MubasherTrade Research said it had added the stock back to its list of regional favourites, and that the retail unit’s listing would effectively lift the firm’s net asset value by around 30 percent to Dh12 per share.
Dubai’s index gained 2.7 percent to 4,234 points. It faces technical resistance at 4,242-4,255 points, the March and February peaks.
Other property-related stocks in Dubai also gained, including construction firm Arabtec which rose 2.5 percent as investors bet on strong financial results and a generous profit distribution before its board meeting.
The firm said later that its fourth-quarter income had more than tripled to Dh122m, and proposed a 10 percent cash dividend for 2013 along with a 30 percent bonus share issue. It paid no dividend for 2012. Analysts had on average expected a fourth-quarter profit of Dh79.50m.
In Abu Dhabi, the index gained 0.5 percent largely on the back of the banking sector. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank , which said last week that it would continue a share buy-back, climbed 1.5 percent.
Kuwait’s Noor Financial Investment Co, which dropped 4.8 percent on Monday after Pakistan’s central bank blocked the sale of its stake in Karachi-based Meezan Bank , shed another 1.7 percent. But the overall Kuwaiti index gained 0.7 percent.
Saudi Arabia’s bourse was the lone loser in the Gulf, down 0.4 percent on above-average volume.
“I think it could be related to oil prices,” said Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor. QNA & Reuters
