(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar bourse advanced broadly yesterday with the index breaking the 13,000 levels, fifth time this year, triggered by retail investors' buying interests. The main index soared by 1.40 percent to close at 13,173 points.
Telecoms sector rose the most with Ooredoo rising 3.04 percent. Ooredoo announced Saturday that it had opened its Myanmar mobile market with low-cost SIM card. UDC, Electricity and Water and QIB were the top gainers, with UDC surging 4.50 percent. Market cap jumped to QR699bn from the previous session's QR693bn.
Analysts attributed the uptrend to the fairly good numbers delivered by blue chips for the second quarter . A preliminary analysis showed the combined net profit of 35 listed companies on Qatar bourse touched QR17.6bn in the first half of 2014, reflecting an estimated 13 percent increase in the collective net profit of all the listed companies a year ago.
Recording a collective profit of QR9.5bn, up 7 percent year-on-year, the banking and financial services sector is the largest contributor to the collective profit, Al Sharq reported.
"In Qatar, foreign institutions turned net buyers in July. After selling $46.6m of equities in June on a net basis, foreigners bought $137.3m in July, restoring the positive injections recorded in April and May. So far, foreign institutions have bought (on a net basis) $2.02bn in 2014, compared to a total inflow of just around $700m in 2013 and outflow of approximately $900m in 2012", QNB analysts said yesterday.
The analysts noted Qatar, which rose 12.1 percent in July, was the second best performing index of the month in the region, after Dubai which surged 22.6 percent month-on-month.
Except insurance sector, all other sector indices were bullish yesterday. Banks and financial services index appreciated 0.90 percent and consumer sector was up by 0.88 percent. Industrials gained 1.49 percent, while real estate rose 1.44 percent and transportation gained 0.88 percent.
The combined value of banking stocks rose to QR261m from QR230m. Consumer sector's value increased to QR98m from QR89m, while industrials rose to QR146m from QR117m.
However, total traded value slid to QR789m from the previous sessions's QR871mn. Total traded volume tumbled to 18 million shares from 23 million shares.
NBK noted in its latest economic update that Qatar was one of the major drivers behind the GCC rallies in the first five month of 2014. Strong corporate profitability, which picked up and is expected to continue to improve, fed into the regional rally, they said.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.