The Qatar Stock Exchange index added 0.8% yesterday with the main support coming from blue chips that are constituents of the MSCI emerging market index.
Islamic lender Masraf Al Rayan added 1.6%.
Egypt’s stock market tumbled in heavy trade yesterday after the central bank unexpectedly raised key interest rates overnight, while Qatar outperformed in an otherwise quiet Gulf.
Cairo’s blue-chip index dropped 2.5% after the central bank hiked its overnight deposit rate and overnight lending rate by two percentage points — its first increase since a hike of three percentage points in November.
The motive for the hike was to combat Cairo’s hyperinflation and it came at the recommendation of the International Monetary Fund.
But the equity market was not prepared for such a move.
“While we expect a market-wide correction as an immediate reaction to the increased opportunity cost of capital, the impact should be felt more on companies that are excessively leveraged,” said Cairo’s Naeem brokerage.
Some fund managers said the hike was unlikely to hurt growth much, given the loose links between interest rates and consumer behaviour in Egypt.
“We believe credit penetration and transmission mechanisms are not deep enough in Egypt for this rate move to have a meaningful impact on growth. We see today’s pull back in the EGX as a buying opportunity,” said Mohamed el-Jamal, managing director of capital markets at Abu Dhabi’s Waha Capital.
Salah Shamma, head of investment for regional equity at Franklin Templeton Investments, said, “Equity markets are expected to initially react negatively as retail investors react.
“However, inflation expectations continue to be relatively unchanged and shouldn’t affect the market’s long-term risk or growth profile.
As such, it is more likely the drop in the equity market will be short-lived.”
Real estate shares were the hardest hit yesterday. Palm Hills Development Company lost 8.4%.
Private equity company Qalaa Holding slumped 9.6% after it reported a much wider net loss in the latest quarter of 3.4bn Egyptian pounds ($188mn), blaming it mainly on the float of the local currency in November.
The broader EGX 100 index fell 1.8%.
The Saudi Arabian index closed almost flat after it had gained 0.8% on Sunday following news that Saudi and US
companies had signed over $200bn of deals during President Donald Trump’s visit to the kingdom.
Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones 94 to 49 with material makers and other industrial companies slightly underperforming.
Polypropylene producer National Industrialisation Company fell 1.0%.
In the UAE, Abu Dhabi’s index fell 0.4% while Dubai’s index edged up 0.1% on the back of Gulf Navigation, which jumped 5.6 %.
Its shares have been surging since Thursday, partly because it posted strong first-quarter earnings on Sunday.
One trader told Reuters that a strategic investor might be increasing its stake in the company.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait’s index gained 0.2% to 6,774 points; Bahrain’s index was flat at 1,309 points, while Oman’s index edged up 0.1% to 5,413 points.


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