DOHA: Qatari stocks declined below the 10,000 mark second time in two weeks yesterday shedding 0.82 percent or 82.03 points to settle at 9,959, after Monday’s 2.64 percent plunge. The entire sector indices, barring transportation, entered red under retailers’ selling pressure.
Banking stocks were the main drag. QNB fell 1.2 percent, Al Rayan decreased 1.8 percent and CBQ was down 2.2 percent. Doha Bank declined 0.5 percent and Al Meera closed 0.3 percent lower.
Industries Major IQ ended 0.9 percent lower and Qatar Fuel went down 0.4 percent. Barwa Real Estate dropped 2 percent and Ezdan Real Estate was 1.3 percent. Qatar Electricity & Water gained 0.5 percent and Qatar Insurance increased 0.4 percent.
Vodafone, the most heavily traded stock, fell 0.66 percent. Nationals were net buyers. Most Gulf stock markets remained weak yesterday due to concern about volatile oil prices and the outlook for the global economy.
In an interview on Monday, a top market watcher told The Peninsula that long-term oil price impact is critical for Qatari stock valuation.
Meanwhile, a research note issued by KAMCO Research noted the Qatari bourse, which was the best performing market in 2014, saw contrasting trends in 2015, ending the year as the third worst performing market in the region, plunging by 15.1 percent to close at 10,429.36 points. The year 2015 saw 9 out of the 43 listed companies ending the year higher, while 34 lost ground.
Telecoms and heavy-weight sectoral indices dragged Qatar Exchange (QE) down in 2015.
Telecoms lost ground by 33.6 percent for the year as both stocks in the sector, Ooredoo & Vodafone Qatar severely underperformed, declining by over 39 percent and 22 percent respectively.
Heavy-weight sectoral indices such as Industrials and Banking & Financial Services further dragged down the index declining by over 21 percent and 12 percent respectively.
The Consumer Goods & Services index also closed lower by over 13 percent for the year of 2015. Sectoral indices that closed in the green for 2015 were led by the Transportation sector which gained by 4.9 percent for the year, followed by the Real Estate sector which went up by 3.9 percent and the Insurance index which moved higher by 1.9 percent.
