DOHA: Qatar’s bourse rallied yesterday after a two-day pull-back. The index rose 1.5 percent with property names leading the turnover. Shares in United Development added 2.4 percent and Barwa Real Estate gained 1.4 percent.
Qatar National Bank, however, contributed most to the increase with a 2.6 percent gain. The lender’s shares are very likely to be included in the MSCI emerging markets index at the end of May along with some other stocks from Qatar and the UAE.
But exchange data shows foreigners have already invested heavily in QNB and some analysts believe the MSCI upgrade will be followed by profit-taking.
Another Qatari lender, Ahli Bank, yesterday became the first local bank to report its first-quarter earnings. The bank made a net profit of QR150.8m against QR135.1m a year earlier. The figure was slightly higher than QNB’s forecast of QR148.6m, and Ahli Bank’s shares rose 3.3 percent.
The volume of the shares traded fell to 26 million from 40 million on Monday and the value of shares decreased to QR944m from QR1.19bn.
Among the top gainers were Gulf International, Qatar Navigation, Barwa Real Estate and Vodafone. Gulf International was up 3.74 percent to QR91.50, Qatar Navigation gained 3.70 percent to QR98, Barwa Real Estate added 1.38 percent to QR36.75 and Vodafone Qatar was up by 0.86 percent to QR14.01. The banking and financial sector index gained 1.33 percent while consumer goods and services sector index was up 0.30 percent. The industrial sector added 2.48 percent, while insurance sector rose 0.91 percent.
Elsewhere in the region, UAE markets edged higher after opening but then changed direction. Abu Dhabi’s bourse, which went up 0.5 percent shortly after the opening, ended the day down 1 percent, largely because Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Etisalat shed 3.7 and 0.9 percent respectively. Dubai’s main index slid 1.6 percent under the weight of lenders Emirates NBD, which was down 5.1 percent, and Dubai Islamic Bank, which slipped 2.5 percent. “It might be a sort of slight correction that was long awaited and is healthy for the market,” said Ali Adou, portfolio manager at The National Investor.
One of the few Dubai stocks that rose was Islamic insurer Takaful Emarat. The stock added 3.4 percent after the company’s chief executive said that it expected to post a profit for the first quarter of this year and an annual profit in 2014 for the first time since it was founded in 2008.
Saudi Arabia’s main index rose 0.6 percent, led by the insurance sector which gained 1.8 percent after Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported, citing an anonymous source that four local insurance companies were in talks to merge — consolidation that could benefit the industry.
The Peninsula/ Reuters
