The Qatar Stock Exchange index yesterday gained 0.5% to close at to 10,958 points. Ooredoo, widely seen as a defensive stock with an attractive dividend yield, was a major reason for the index’s rise, gaining 3.3%.
Reuters/Dubai
Most Gulf stock markets fell back yesterday as the region consolidated after a strong rebound on Tuesday, while foreign investors’ bargain-hunting in blue chips lifted Egypt.
The Qatar Stock Exchange bucked the trend and continued to rise, gaining 0.5% to close at to 10,958 points. Telecommunications firm Ooredoo, widely seen as a defensive stock with an attractive dividend yield, was a major reason for the index’s rise, gaining 3.3%.
The Gulf’s bounce on Tuesday, after several days of sharp falls, created a sense that markets in the region have found at least short-term floors. Some institutional investors came back into the markets to buy selected stocks with valuations that they now saw as reasonable.
But with global oil prices and equities still unstable and the economic outlook for China unclear, fund managers do not have any confidence that Gulf bourses have bottomed for the longer term.
So the Saudi stock index, which had surged 7.4% on Tuesday, fell back 2.1% yesterday. Trading volume, which had jumped on Tuesday to its highest level since May 2014, shrank by more than a third.
Petrochemical producer Saudi Basic Industries, which had jumped its 10% daily limit on Tuesday, pulled back 4.1%. Alinma Bank, which had also gained 10%, slipped 3.7%.
Selling was not indiscriminate, however, and there was continued bargain-hunting in some second- or third-tier stocks, such as healthcare provider Bupa Arabia, up 2.8%.
Dubai’s stock index, which had jumped 4.6% on Tuesday, fell back 1.4%. Real estate shares that had surged on Tuesday saw selling, with Emaar Properties down 1.7% and Damac Properties off 4.4%.
Abu Dhabi edged down 0.1% as Aldar Properties, which had added 7.0% on Tuesday, pulled back 5.3%. However, telecommunications blue chip Etisalat gained 0.8%.
Egypt’s index EGX30, which had risen 2.8% on Tuesday, climbed a further 0.5% as Qalaa Holdings, one of the country’s largest investment firms, rose 4.7%. Real estate blue chip Palm Hills Development added 2.1%.
Exchange data showed non-Egyptian Arab investors were net buyers by a large margin and other foreign investors were also buyers.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait’s index fell 0.4% to 5,814 points; Oman’s index edged up 0.4% to 5,782 points, while Bahrain’s index edged down 0.1% to 1,303 points.
