Qatar stocks decline ahead of long holidays

28/07/2014 08:31 AST

Qatar bourse’s main index declined 0.58 percent yesterday before the market closed for four-day Eid Al Fitr holidays.

After long holiday weekend, trading will resume on August 3.

Telecoms and Consumer sectors made marginal gains, while all other sectoral indices entered red. Barwa Real Estate was the top loser. It’s shares tumbled by 6.8 percent to QR37.70.

Market cap dropped to QR690bn from the previous trading session’s QR693bn.

QE’s monthly data showed the main index gained 1,388 points, or 12.09 percent, on support of blue chips in July.

Masraf Al Rayan, Barwa Real estate, Ezdan Holding, QNB and Vodafone Qatar were the top five companies traded in terms of value. Masraf Al Rayan’s value rose by 14.10 percent to QR1.77bn in July compared to June. Barwa Real Estate’s value increased by 8.79 percent to QR1.10bn. Ezdan Holding Group added 6.83 percent to QR858m and QNB was up by 6.05 percent to QR760m and Vodafone Qatar added 5.69 percent to QR715m.

Market capitalisation rose by 9.18 percent at the end of July from the previous month’s QR632bn. Trading days during July 2014 were 19, against 22 trading sessions in June.

Real estate stocks outperformed the sector indices by surging 13.91 percent. Banks and Financial Services soared 13.32 percent. Telecoms gained 10.78 percent as Insurance rose by 10.74 percent. Consumer Goods and Services Index edged 8.74 percent.

QIB , Masraf Al Rayan, International Islamic, QNB and Commercial Bank were the top gainers of the banking stocks.

Both trading value and volume decreased during the month of July. Trading value decreased by 29.07 percent to QR12bn from the previous month’s QR17bn. Trading volume decreased by 23.79 percent to over 303 million shares from June’s 398 million shares. The number of transaction fell by 26.22 percent to 146,915 transactions in July as compared to 199,130 transactions in June.

The Banks and Financial Services sector led trading value during the month, accounting for 34.7 percent of the total trading value, followed by real estate sector (22.76 percent), Industrial sector (16.16 percent), consumer goods and services (10.71 percent), Telecoms (7.53 percent), transportation (4.59 percent) and Insurance (3.55 percent).

The real estate sector led trading volume during July accounting for 33.95 percent of the total trading volume, followed by Banks and Financial Sector (23.90 percent), Telecom sector (13.09 percent), Consumer Goods and Service Sector (11.55 percent), Industrials sector (9.13 percent) and Transportation sector (5.91 percent).

Of the 43 listed companies, 39 ended higher in July , while 4 fell.

The Peninsula