(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Spurred by industries and top banks' stocks, Qatar Exchange index jumped 112.38 points, or 8.2 percent, yesterday when the bourse closed trading at 13,865.89 points.
The trading value reached QR965.48m with a volume of 16,759,297 shares changing hands from 8,488 transactions yesterday.
From the 43 listed companies, a majority from the 26 gainers advanced significantly.
Shares of six banks made gains from 3.72 percent to 0.25 percent while eight companies from industrial sector advanced. Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company was the only one to lose slightly, 0.21 percent.
Islamic Holding share jumped 4.01 percent, up QR3.60 to close at QR93.40 while Qatar International Islamic Bank share gained 3.72 percent, up QR3.30 to close at QR92.
From the real estate sector, Mazaya Qatar was up 4.07 percent when it closed at QR24.82 with a fair trading volume of 2,418,771 shares.
Thirteen companies declined yesterday. Qatar Islamic Insurance was down 2.16 percent to QR90.60. Four companies remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, stock markets in Saudi Arabia and Egypt edged down yesterday as investors booked profits after strong gains.
Saudi Arabia's main stock index ended a six-day upswing, closing down 0.6 percent after earlier in the day rising above the psychologically important level of 11,000 points for the first time since January 2008.
Trading volume soared when the index began falling and shrank when stocks came off their lows, while 14-day momentum formed a negative divergence - all bearish short-term technical signals that suggested the market might be peaking.
The index had jumped over 13 percent since the stock market regulator said on July 22 that it would allow direct investment by foreigners in the first half of next year. It published draft regulations for the reform last Thursday.
Another factor behind the uptrend was expectations that Saudi banks, which are to a considerable extent financed by Islamic deposits bearing no interest, will benefit from the expected rise in US interest rates. The Saudi riyal is pegged to the US dollar, meaning Saudi rate policy follows US policy.
But some banking stocks have now overshot even the most optimistic price targets. Alinma Bank, which slid 2.4 percent to 24.80 riyals and was the main drag on the index yesterday, had surged 34 percent since the July 22 announcement.
The median target price for the stock, based on estimates from five analysts surveyed by Reuters, is 19.90 riyals and the highest estimate is 23.30 riyals.
Egypt's bourse also retreated from a six-year high and fell 1.0 percent. Among the main drags were stocks that had posted big gains in the last few days, such as property developer Talaat Moustafa and Global Telecom, which fell 1.7 and 2.8 percent respectively. "I think it's just profit-taking as the (second-quarter) results season is over and the market is just taking a breather," said Harshjit Oza, assistant director of research at Naeem Brokerage.
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