Doha: Qatar Exchange index gained 84.41 points or 0.71 percent as it closed yesterday at 11,920.48 points from the previous closing of 11,836.07. Among the top gainers were Commercial Bank whose share was up 1.52 percent to QR66.90, Doha Insurance was up 2.29 to QR26.75, Doha Bank rose 1.55 percent to QR59.10 and Vodafone Qatar added 2.73 percent to QR15.41.
Industries Qatar, the Gulf’s second-largest petrochemicals firm, rose 1.7 percent and was the main support for Doha’s index. Gulf International Services, whose business includes providing drilling rigs and other services to oil and gas companies, jumped 3 percent.
Shares in Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar’s second-largest bank by market value, rose 1 percent after it reported a 21.2 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit.
Ooredoo fell 1.4 percent after brokerage NBK Capital on Monday downgraded the stock to “hold”, citing increasing competition faced by its foreign units and political instability in Iraq, where the company also operates.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s petrochemicals sector surged after Opec’s secretary-general said oil prices might have bottomed out and warned of a jump to $200 a barrel if investment in new supplies became too low.
The main Saudi stock index jumped 2.4 percent in the heaviest trade this month, as shares in petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries surged 6.4 percent to 84.00 riyals. All other stocks in the beaten-down sector also rose.
Banks also did well after Kuwait’s Global brokerage issued a bullish report on the Saudi banking sector, saying recent regulations restricting consumer-related fees would have only a short-term negative impact on banks’ profitability. Samba Financial Group and Saudi Fransi rose 3.2 and 6.2 percent respectively.
Other Gulf markets were weaker. Kuwait edged down 0.7 percent after the country’s finance ministry revealed a draft budget for the next fiscal year starting in April, which projects a big deficit and a 17.8 percent drop in spending from the original plan for the current 2014/15 year.
Bourses in Dubai and Abu Dhabi slipped 0.1 percent each. Union Properties tumbled 5.8 percent after its 2014 profit fell 45.6 percent and revenues more than halved. Arabtec, on the other hand, surged 5.2 percent after the bourse said its main shareholder, Abu Dhabi fund Aabar Investments, had received regulatory approval to buy a further 100 million shares. It is not clear from whom the shares would be bought.
Egypt rose 1.1 percent to a fresh 6-1/2-year closing high of 9,947 points. Property firms Medinet Nasr Housing and Development and Heliopolis Housing led gains, surging 4.7 percent and 3.9 percent respectively as Egypt’s central bank continued its gradual depreciation of the pound.
QNA/Reuters
