By: Eman Ghaly
Mubasher: The Qatar stock exchange (QSE) ended Thursday’s trading session in green territory, for the second session in a row, backed by the growth of five sectors.
The general index rose 55.81 points, or 0.57%, to finish at 9,784.31 points.
By the end of the last session this week, the market's turnover inched up 0.8% to QAR 546.66 billion from QAR 542.32 billion on Wednesday.
The bourse’s liquidity increased to QAR 307.35 million on Thursday from QAR 298.10 million on Wednesday, while the trading volume decreased to 6.94 million shares against 8.02 million in the previous session.
Earlier this day, the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has increased the deposit interest rate by 0.25% to 2.25% in line with the US Federal Reserve's and other central banks’ decision on Wednesday of raising the key interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 2% to 2.25%.
The Qatari market was able to cope with QCB’s decision of raising deposit interest rate, general manager of Namaa Consultancy Taha Abdel Ghani told Mubasher.
The QSE announced previously that it would amend the constituents of four main indices in October, comprising the addition of three new stocks in the general index.
Abdel Ghani added that the market is waiting for the third quarter’s disclosures that are expected to be positive.
The banking sector topped the QSE’s risers adding 1.26% as Masraf Al Rayan grew 2.19%, the highest level since August 2008.
Similarly, the industrial sector levelled up 0.56% on the back of Qatar Industrial Manufacturing’s 2.98% jump.
Meanwhile, the transportation sector headed the bourse’s losers falling 0.96% as Qatar Gas Transport (Nakilat) and Gulf Warehousing went down 1.94% and 0.68%, respectively.
The telecommunication sector retreated 0.66% as Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar plunged 0.72% and 0.58%, respectively.
By the end of the session, the heavyweight Qatar National Bank's (QNB) stock, which rose 1.73%, led the QSE in terms of liquidity with QAR 49.71 million, while Doha Bank’s stock, which increased 0.24%, spearheaded the market in terms of trading volume with 882,250 shares.
Translated by: Kholoud Mohamed Hussein
