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Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Buoyed by continuous rise in energy prices, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index breached the 10,000-point mark to reach a fresh 16-month high on Thursday.
The QSE main index rose 31.79 points, or 0.32 percent, to close at 10,021.96 points following a 1.3 percent gain in Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC), which has risen in the past few days on the back of oil's climb near $80 a barrel.
All the seven sector indices closed in the positive territory on the day that saw the bourse's liquidity decrease to QR185.76 million from QR289.16 million on Wednesday, while the trading volume went down to 5.31 million shares against 7.59 million in the previous session.
The transportation sector, which gained 1.82 percent after Qatar Navigation (Milaha) and Qatar Gas Transport (Nakilat) grew 4.16 percent and 0.68 percent respectively, was the best performing sector index for the day.
The real estate sector and the consumer goods sector, which gained 1.48 percent and 0.72 percent, were also instrumental in lifting the main index higher.
The banking sector went up 0.20 percent as stock prices of Islamic Holding Group and heavyweight Qatar National Bank (QNB) gained 1.3 percent and 0.27 percent respectively.
By the end of the session, QNB's stock led the QSE in terms of liquidity with QR47.7 million, while Vodafone Qatar's stock, which went up 0.45 percent, spearheaded the market in terms of trading volume with 532,040 million shares.
Out of 41 stocks traded on the day, 23 gained. While 16 stocks declined, there was no change in the prices of the remaining two stocks.
Foreign institutional investors remained bullish throughout the day and accounted for 45.5 percent of the total buy. Despite selling pressure from Qatari investors, the day saw both conventional and Islamic stocks gain.
Meanwhile, the QSE has said in a statement that MPHC, Qatar Fuel (Woqod) and Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) will get entry into QSE 20-stock index with effect from October 1 as components and weightings of QE Index, QE Al Rayan Islamic Index and QE All Share Index have been modified.
The three stocks will replace Al Meera, Investment Holding and Qatari Investors Group (QIG) in the QSE 20-stock index.
According to the QSE statement, any qualifying component exceeding 15 percent weight in the index at the closure of market on September 26 will have its weight capped at the 15 percent level and excess weight allocated to remaining stocks proportionately.
Indicative weightings based on September 11 closing prices and free float shares figures which are subject to change due to price movement and corporate actions point to some of the key modifications to the QE Index weightings.
Now QNB will have weighting of 15 percent against initial weight of 27.62 percent, Industries Qatar (IQ) to be at 14.75 percent against initial weight of 12.56 percent, Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) will have weighting of 10.57 percent against initial weight of 9 percent and Masraf Al Rayan will have the weighting of 9.84 percent against 8.38 percent earlier.
The bourse also announced that MPHC, Woqod and Zad Holding will join the QE Al Rayan Islamic Index, while Mazaya Qatar and Qatar Islamic Insurance Company will leave the index.
The basket is re-structured based on the ranking of a company's liquidity adjusted capitalisation, with the top two components being IQ with a weighting of 15 percent and Masraf Al Rayan with a weighting of 12 percent.
Qatar Cinema and Film Distribution Company will leave both the QE All Share Index and QE Consumer Goods and Services index.
