Doha: Qatar Exchange was back in the green area yesterday adding 11.98 points, or 0.12 percent, to advance to 9,797.88 points from 9,785.90 on Sunday.
The volume of the shares traded rose to 4,972,177 from 3,105,746 on Sunday and the value of shares increased to QR301,372,145.53 from QR157,373,972.36 on Sunday.
Among the top gainers were Electricity and Water which was up 0.64 percent to QR157.90, while Doha Bank gained 0.55 percent to QR54.70, Gulf International gained 4.10 percent to QR52.00 and Gulf warehousing Company was up by 1.23 percent to QR41.00.
The Banking and Financial sector index dropped 0.26 points while Consumer Goods and Services sector index gained 0.01 points. The industrial sector rose 0.42 points while insurance sector fell 0.18 points.
Meanwhile, active trading by retail investors boosted other Gulf stock markets yesterday while Egypt rose after a court banned the Muslim Brotherhood from carrying out any activities in the country.
Saudi Arabia was closed for a national holiday but across much of the Gulf, individual investors speculated actively ahead of third-quarter earnings announcements expected next month.
“Retail investors are very active in the market, targeting the penny stocks and the highly liquid names,” Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor, said of Dubai.
Dubai’s index climbed 1.0 percent to 2,709 points in some of the heaviest trade this year, leaving it close to its August peak of 2,762 points, which many analysts consider strong technical resistance.
The most active stock was Gulf Navigation, which soared 10.1 percent after the firm, which made a loss last year because of tough conditions in the oil shipping market, said it planned to sell some ships and might get a cash injection.
In a statement to the bourse, it said the board of directors would ask shareholders for approval to sell its two very large crude carriers, and had conducted “positive communications with major shareholders to inject cash into GNH”. It did not elaborate on the size or timing of any cash injection.
Small-capital property stocks Deyaar and Union Properties also traded heavily, as did Dubai builder Arabtec, which climbed 2.0 percent.
The overall Abu Dhabi market was barely changed but Dana Gas rose 1.6 percent to close at 0.64 dirham, off a high of 0.68 dirham, possibly because of bets it may soon recover at least some of the $230m in overdue payments for gas supplies which it is owed by Egypt.
Egypt is close to agreeing a schedule for repaying $6 billion in outstanding debt to foreign oil companies, the country’s prime minister said this month. RAK Properties, the most active Abu Dhabi stock, gained 2.9 percent.
In Egypt, the index gained 1.1 percent to 5,648 points after a court banned the Muslim Brotherhood from carrying out any activities in the country and ordered the seizure of the group’s funds, strengthening a campaign to debilitate the Islamist movement of deposed president Mohammed Mursi.
Although some foreign investors think such steps could widen political divisions in the country and store up trouble for the future, many Egyptian investors welcome signs that the army-backed government is taking a tough line against the Brotherhood.
Agencies
