Mubasher: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) ended December at a rise after declining for four consecutive months, coinciding with achieving market gains of QAR 53.9 billion.
The QSE’s main index soared 10.49%, or 809 points, finishing the month at 8,823.38 points, for the first time since July 2014, against 7,714.26 points in November.
Market capitalisation surged 12.88% to QAR 472.02 billion at the end of December from QAR 418.15 billion in the previous month.
Similarly, the trading volume soared 50.52% to 252.77 million shares in December compared to 167.93 million the month before, generating a liquidity of QAR 5.21 billion versus QAR 4.25 billion.
Transactions jumped 11.57% to 76,210 in December from 68,310 in November.
The banking sector topped the QSE’s gainers with a 41.1% growth, followed by the industrial and real estate sectors which gained 21.6% and 12.1%, respectively.
While the telecommunications, the transportation, the insurance, and the services sectors levelled up 7.9%, 6.1%, 5.8% and 5.3%, respectively.
Qatar National Bank (QNB) posted the QSE’s highest turnover in December registering 17.9%, followed by Industries Qatar and Masraf Al Rayan which made up 7.9%, 7.9%, respectively.
The banking sector led the trading volume in December with 28.9%, followed by the industrials sector with 25.4%. The real estate sector recorded 18.9% and the telecom sector made up 14.7%.
Meanwhile, the transportation sector acquired 5.3% of the volumes, followed by the insurance and the services sectors with 3.3% and 3.3%, respectively.
Ezdan Holding Group topped 44 risers in December after adding 51%, while the cinema's stock remained stable.
It is worth mentioning that trading days during December were 19, against 22 days in November due to Qatar’s National Day’s holiday on 17 and 18 December 2017.
