Doha: Qatar Exchange ended in the green rising 72.40 points or 0.71 percent to 10,284.80 points from the previous closing of 10,072.05 on Thursday. Among the top gainers were Qatar Islamic Bank whose share was up 1.02% percent to QR 69, Nakilat added 1.12 percent to QR19.79, Industries Qatar gained 0.60 percent to QR 168.40 and Qatar Navigation increased by 1.03 percent to QR 88.40.
Stocks in Qatar and Saudi Arabia continued to benefit from year-end dividend-hunting while Bahrain slipped after some companies posted third-quarter losses. Markets in the United Arab Emirates remained volatile. Qatari companies are also known for paying relatively high dividends.
The top performer in Saudi Arabia was Southern Province Cement, which is expected to deliver a 5.9 percent dividend yield this year compared with the index average of 3.9 percent, according to consensus analyst estimates from Thomson Reuters. The stock jumped 9.2 percent.
Other cement producers such as Qassim Cement and Yamamah Cement were also among the top performers with expected dividend yields well above the average. The Saudi market climbed 0.8 percent to a fresh five-year high.
Bahrain’s index fell 0.5 percent after two listed companies, Ithmaar Bank and Gulf Finance House, reported third-quarter losses. Although Ithmaar’s loss of 1.7m dinars ($4.5m) was 74 percent smaller than a year ago, its shares fell 2.2 percent. Gulf Finance House dropped 6.5 percent after reporting a loss of $3.2m, which compares with a profit of $1.8m in the third quarter of 2012.
In Dubai, the main index weakened 0.4 percent as some retail investors appeared to be selling small-cap stocks. Gulf Navigation tumbled as much as 10 percent at one stage but ended only 0.5 percent lower. It reported an operating loss of $3.55m for the third quarter against a year-earlier loss of $4.46m.
“Such aggressive selling on retail stocks is usually combined with margin calls on investors,” said Marwan Shurrab, fund manager and head of trading at Vision Investments. Healthy trading volumes, however, showed that other players in the market were willing to buy.
Dubai’s index is up 74 percent year-to-date and analysts expect it to remain volatile until Nov. 27, when a decision is due on the emirate’s bid to host the Expo 2020 world fair.
In Oman, Galfar Engineering and Contracting sank 3.2 percent after a senior official at state-run Petroleum Development Oman went on trial on Thursday on charges of taking a bribe from two executives of the company. The two Galfar executives have denied the accusation.
Egypt rose 0.8 percent yesterday. Standard & Poor’s Ratings on Friday raised the country’s long and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to B-/B from CCC+/C, citing the billions of dollars in aid to Cairo from Gulf countries.
HIGHLIGHTS
QATAR: The index rose 0.7 percent to 10,285 points.
SAUDI ARABIA: The index climbed 0.8 percent to 8,384 points.
BAHRAIN: The index declined 0.5 percent to 1,198 points.
DUBAI: The index slipped 0.4 percent to 2,813 points.
ABU DHABI: The index fell 0.1 percent to 3,789 points.
EGYPT: The index rose 0.8 percent to 6,276 points.
KUWAIT: The index rose 0.1 percent to 7,913 points.
OMAN: The index edged up 0.03 percent to 6,764 points.
Reuters
