Al Meera, Mawashi to replace SIIL, Al Khalij Holding in QE benchmark

Salam International Investment (SIIL) and Al Khalij Holding will be removed from the Qatar Exchange’s (QE) 20-stock benchmark and replaced with Al Meera Consumer Goods Company and Mawashi.The move came after the semi-annual review of the QE index constituents and the revision will be effective on April 1. The other 18 entities will continue to be Industries Qatar (IQ), Doha Bank, al khaliji, Commercialbank (Cb), Qatar Telecom (Qtel), Gulf International Services (GIS), Barwa, Milaha (formerly Qatar Navigation), National Leasing (NLC), QNB, International Islamic (QIIB), Qatar Insurance (QIC), Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Electricity and Water (QEWC), Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), United Development Company (UDC), Nakilat and Vodafone Qatar.Under the new index practices, a review is carried out twice a year to ensure that the selection and weighting of the constituents continues to reflect the purpose of the index.In addition to the periodical review of the key index, the bourse also said from April 1 the maximum weight of a single stock would be 15%.“If during the index review any stock is found to exceed this (15%) weight, then the stock’s market value is capped and any excess weight is distributed proportionately among the remaining index constituents,” a QE spokesman said, adding the rule also applied to the new QE ‘Total Returns Index’, constituents of which are identical to the QE Index.The indicative weightings for the QE Index are QNB with 15% (initial free-float weight is 22.30%), IQ 12.09% (11%), Masraf Al Rayan 10.29% (9.37%), QIB 7.74% (7.07%), Cb 7.16% (6.55%), Qtel 6.67% (6.09%), Barwa 5.72% (5.24%), QEWC 5.47% (5.01%), Nakilat 5.03% (4.61%), Doha Bank 4.79% (4.38%), Milaha 3.94% (3.61%), QIIB 3.06% (2.81%), UDC 3% (2.75%), al khaliji 2.99% (2.75%), QIC 2.83% (2.60%), GIS 1.28% (1.18%), Vodafone 1.26% (1.16%), NLC 0.74% (0.68%), Al Meera 0.57% (0.53%) and Mawashi 0.35% (0.33%).The bourse has also undertaken the first scheduled review of qualifying stocks for the new QE ‘All Share Index’, whose constituents have a minimum 1% trading velocity. The index is also based on total returns that incorporate both price and dividend income.Accordingly, 40 (of the total 42 stocks) have qualified to be included in the All Share Index. Both Ezdan and Ahlibank Qatar have not figured in the new index, whose measurement was taken between March 1, 2011 and February 28, 2012. Velocity is the proportion of total shares that have changed hands in one year.From April 1, the bourse would also have seven sectors: banks and financial services, insurance, industrials, real estate, telecom, transportation and consumer goods and services in the ‘All Share Index’ from the present four segments of banks, insurance, industry and services.Under the ‘All Share Index’, banks and financial services would have the maximum weight, followed by industrials, transportation, real estate, telecoms, consumer goods and services and insurance.