Doha: Qatar Exchange pursued its upswing trend yesterday, adding 15.26 points (or 0.18 percent) to advance to 8,350.74 points from 8,335.48 on Sunday.
The volume of the shares traded up to 2,985,722 from 1,513,653 on Sunday and the value of shares increased to QR178,238,472.46 from QR80,424,703.11 on Sunday.
Among the top gainers were Commercial Bank of Qatar which was up 0.85 percent to QR71.40, Qatar Islamic Bank rose 0.79 percent to QR76.20, Industries Qatar gained 0.65 percent to QR154.00 and Gulf International was up by 2.01 percent to QR30.50.
The banking and financial sector index up 3.10 points while consumer goods and services sector index added 0.47 points. The industrial sector gained 13.42 points while insurance sector dropped 24.22 points.
Meanwhile, f oreign buying in Dubai’s bellwether Emaar Properties yesterday helped the emirate’s bourse make its largest one-day gain in two weeks.
Shares in Emaar rose 1.6 percent, extending year-to-date gains to 44.4 percent.
A recovery in sectors of Dubai’s real estate market along with new project announcements has brought investor appetite back into developers shares.
Emaar said last November that plans to expand its Dubai Mall with high-end fashion stores, hotels and luxury homes had been finalised and work would begin shortly.
“Most of the activity was concentrated on Emaar, which is driven by foreigners who are positioning ahead of the year-end,” said Anastasios Dalgiannakis, institutional trading manager at Mubasher.
Some market participants expect a strong year for equities in 2013 and are accumulating now, he added. Investors are also bullish on Emaar’s fourth-quarter results.
Small-cap Ajman Bank climbed 4.2 percent, extending gains on market talk of a possible investor looking to purchase a large stake.
The emirate’s index advanced one percent, its biggest one-day gain since November 29.
In Saudi Arabia, the index gained 0.3 percent, a fresh five-week high as investors took positions ahead of the year-end on expectations of a strong start to 2013.
Large-caps supported, with the heavyweight petrochemical and banking sectors up 0.8 and 0.4 percent respectively.
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical jumped 4.5 percent in heavy trade. Saudi Basic Industries Corp gained 0.3 percent.
“People are positioning for two things, the Saudi budget and 2013 — we are very positive on the market for next year,” said Alhassan Goussous, chief executive officer at Bakheet Investment Group. “The market is quite undervalued and prices should come in line with fundamentals once global issues — uncertainty in the US and Europe — reduce.”
Saudi’s budget for 2013 is expected to be announced before December-end. On global markets, investors are focused on the fast approaching year-end deadline to avoid the imposition of steep tax hikes and spending cuts in the US, known as the “fiscal cliff”, which could send the world’s top economy back into recession.
Back in Riyadh, shares in Dallah Healthcare Holding Company surged 51.3 percent on its debut. Dallah rose to 57.50 riyals per shares, up from its initial public offering (IPO) price of 38 riyals.
Agencies
