By Mahmoud Gamal:
Qatar-Mubasher Exclusive: The Qatar Exchange (QE) shut Wednesday’s session with a gain by as much as 1.12% or 124.3 points to cross the 11100 barrier at 11181.65 points. The market got momentum from banks stocks.
The QE All Share Index rose 1.04% to 2851.86 points.
The benchmark index successfully moved above the 11100 points level once again this week, as it got support from leading stocks in the banks sector, said Hamoud Al Azimy, capital market analyst.
The market also traced U.S. exchanges that shut in the green territory, as S&P’s Index rose 0.42%, Dow Jones (+0.36%) and NASDAQ (+0.34%), the analyst told Mubasher.
Technically, the index is fluctuating between 11500 and 10200 due to investor worries in GCC stock markets due to oil slump, the analyst said.
Five sectors were bullish on Wednesday, topped by banks (+1.6%), then insurance (+1.2%). The transport and industrials also added 0.99% and 0.93% respectively, while real estate was the sole decliner (-0.09%).
Tracking stock performance, Gulf International was the best performer (+9.9%), while Islamic Holding was the biggest drag (-9.9%) followed by Dlala (-8%).
Wednesday’s turnover fell to QAR 643.11 million from QAR 929.42 million yesterday. Traded volume also fell to 14 million shares from 20.3 million shares and the number of transactions decreased to 7846 from 8192.
QNB was the most active with turnover exceeding QAR 71 million, while Vodafone was on top with a traded volume reaching 2.38 million shares.
The market capitalization rose by around QAR 6.36 billion to QAR 618.6 billion from QAR 611.9 billion.
According to the analyst, a market rally may be triggered by positive news such as strong financial results for leading companies like QNB.
Translated by Sayed Abdel Rahman
Photo Credit: Arabianeye-Reuters