By: Eman Ghaly

Mubasher: The Qatar stock exchange (QSE) ended July’s trading activities with a positive note, hitting the highest level since December 2017, encouraged by the growth of six sectors, amid announcing the first-half financial results of the listed companies.

The general index jumped 8.9%, or 801.08 points, to close the month at 9,825.11 points. The market value rose 9.4% to QAR 539.9 billion in July, compared to QAR 493.7 billion in the previous month.

Trades

By the end of July, the banking sector topped the QSE’s six gainers adding 11.9%, followed by the industrial, real estate and transportation sectors, which recorded 9.8%, 7.6%, and 3.4%, respectively.

Similarly, the goods and insurance sectors went up by 2.2% and 1.7%, respectively.

On the flipside, the telecommunication sector was the bourse’s only decliner falling 0.46% over the month ended 31 July.

Over the course of the month, 31 stocks increased, spearheaded by Industries Qatar, which rose 16.4%, while 13 stocks decreased topped by Dlala Brokerage and Investment Holding’s 11.9% drop.

The market’s trading volume declined 2.4% to 166.01 million shares this month versus 170.08 million last month.

The bourse’s liquidity dipped 43.7% to QAR 4.5 billion from QAR 7.9 billion in the month before, while the number of transactions tumbled 10.06% to 70,480 against 78,360.

It is worth noting that Moody's Investors Service has affirmed the long-term issuer and foreign-currency senior unsecured debt ratings for Qatar at Aa3, changing the outlook on long-term issuer ratings to stable from negative.

The key driver of the outlook change to stable is Moody's assessment that Qatar can withstand the economic, financial and diplomatic boycott by the three neighboring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Egypt, or with possible further restrictions, for an extended period of time without a material deterioration of the sovereign's credit profile.

Financial results

Around 31 of the 45 QSE listed companies announced their financial results for the second quarter of 2018, according to a survey conducted by Mubasher.

Net profits declined 0.13% year-on-year to QAR 8.17 in Q21-18.

As for the first half of 2018, net profits of the 31 firms went down 0.88% to QAR 17.22 billion, compared to QAR 17.37 billion in H1-17​

Translated by: Kholoud Mohamed Hussein