By: Eman Ghaly

Mubasher: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) recorded its highest annual hike since 2013 this year, as market capitalisation of listed companies increased 24.74%.

The general index of QSE grew 20.83%, or 1,775.63, to 10,299.01 points from 2017.

The market had witnessed many stimulations, especially allowing the increase of foreigners’ share cap in listed firms to 49%, the listing of QAMCO as the 46th equity in the market, and the IPO of two investment funds.

During the year, market capitalisation grew 24.72% to QAR 588.72 billion ($161.7 billion) at today’s close, versus QAR 472.02 billion ($129.7 billion) by the end of 2017.

The general index was supported by the hike in 4 sectors, led by the banks with 42.84%, while insurance and telecommunication sectors dropped 13.54% and 10.10%, respectively.

As for stocks, 19 shares grew in 2018, topped by Qatar Fuel (Woqod) with 62.64%, while 27 shares declined, led by Qatar First Bank with 37.52%-drop.

The banks sector acquired 45.08% of the market turnover, followed by the industrials sector with 20.65%, and real estate with 9.50%.

The market participants made 1.04 million transactions all over the year, growing 25% from 834,390 transactions a year ago.

On the other hand, trading volume has cooled down by 7.28% to 2.29 billion shares, versus 2.47 billion in 2017, with the banks sector acquiring the biggest portion of 30.81%, followed by the industrials and real estate, with 22.91% and 17%, respectively.

Translated by: Mohammad Shokhba