DOHA: Qatar stocks dropped, pulled lower by a sell-off in the high-flying banking and industries stocks yesterday.
The bourse’s main index dropped 0.7 percent to 12,860 points with most stocks closing the day in red.
Ezdan tumbled 9.94 percent.UDC surged 6.9 percent before announcing a 57 percent year-on-year increase in its net profit for the first quarter of 2014
Last week, the company, which is developing The Pearl residential complex on an artificial island in Doha, said it had agreed to sell 47 plots of land in the area for QR1.45bn ($398m).
Shares in Qatar Gas Transport Co (Nakilat) rose 0.5 percent after it reported a 16.6 percent rise in first-quarter profit yesterday, in line with an estimate published by Qatar National Bank.
Market cap dropped to QR77bn yesterday, from the previous session’s QR79.6bn. Total traded value decreased to QR1.06bn from QR1.19bn. Total traded volume slipped to 28 million shares from 30 million shares.
Of the seven sector indices, four declined with the industries shedding the most by 1.35 percent. Bellwether Industries Qatar, which reported a marginal drop in its first quarter net profit yesterday, edged 0.27 percent down.
Banks and financial sector was down by 1 percent with QIB dropping the most by 2.94 percent. QNB lost 0.25 percent and Doha Bank dropped 1.63 percent.
Meanwhile, Dubai, lifted by property-related stocks, and Saudi Arabia, supported by food producer Almarai, were the only gaining share markets in an otherwise weak Gulf yesterday. The main Dubai index climbed 0.6 percent, largely on the back of real estate developer Emaar Properties and builder Arabtec Holding. Saudi Arabia’s bourse edged up 0.2 percent on the back of insurance companies and food producers. The Abu Dhabi index edged down 0.4 percent to 5,153 points. The Peninsula & Agencies
