A general view of the Qatari Stock Exchange building in Doha. (Reuters)
DOHA: The run of gains on Qatar stock market extended to fourth consecutive session yesterday and the bull is expected to keep raging. Powered by foreign buying, the QSE benchmark index surged to 9,976.51, up 1.56, its highest levels for 14 months, to close the gap created back in June 2017, the day on which the Arab quartet imposed a blockade on Qatar. QSE said the index delivered highest return amongst emerging and developed world markets in 2018.
Banking and real estate stocks were the main drivers. Banking sector rose 2.20 percent with the Commercial Bank rising the most by 4.14 percent. QNB gained 2.29 percent and QIB advanced 2.25 percent. Ezdan, Doha Bank, QEWC and Barwa were among other top gainers. Ezdan surged 9.83 percent and Barwa jumped 2.48 percent.
QSE index delivered 17.05 percent since the beginning of the year until the close of yesterday’s trading session making it the best performing market across emerging and developed markets globally. In 2018 the market has seen $1.45bn in foreign net inflows demonstrating confidence in the outlook for Qatar, particularly amongst foreign investors, the bourse said.
The index yesterday broke the levels achieved on June 4, 2017 of 9923.6 (pre-blockade levels) and the market capitalisation has increased by 3.2 percent reaching QR549.8bn, compared to QR532.5bn on June 4,2017. The average daily traded value on QSE has recorded significant increase since the beginning of the year and reached QR350m during the first seven months of 2018, compared to QR328m during the same period last year.
Industrial stock QEWC added 2.62 percent to close at QR194.98. QNBFS in its company report, yesterday, upgraded QEWS from an ‘accumulate to outperform’. “Although Q2, 2018 was admittedly weaker-than-expected and the stock has drifted down after touching its YTD high of QR205.25, which was fueled by strong Q1 results/FOL (foreign ownership level) hike, we continue to believe there is long-term upside in the name”, QNBFS analysts said.
Citing a MEED report, The Peninsula yesterday reported Qatar is set to award contracts for staggering $85bn worth projects.
Rashid Rashid bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO of Qatar Stock Exchange said the bourse has proven its ability to overcome the challenges of the economic blockade, which brought the best out of Qatar’s capital market, and performance has exceeded expectations with positive results on all levels. He said the QSE index delivered highest return among the emerging and developed world markets in 2018.
Qatar recorded the best monthly performance during the month of July led, by higher foreign institutional buying due to the recent amendment in foreign ownership limits and strong oil.
The Q2, 18 GCC earnings season kicked off on a positive note with most banks reporting strong earnings across the GCC, thereby boosting investor sentiment in most of the GCC markets during the month. This pushed the aggregate GCC index up by more than 3 percent in July. Qatar’s Industrials stock IQ was up 16 percent and Aamal jumped 13.5 percent during the month. In the GCC market, petrochemical stocks reported gains largely due to elevated oil prices that resulted in better product prices, analysts at KAMCO Research noted.
