The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) surged as it broke major technical resistance and Dubai was boosted by real estate companies yesterday, while most Middle Eastern markets were held back by weak oil prices and uneven corporate earnings.
The Qatari index gained 1.6% to 10,585 points, an advance on its December and March peaks at 10,490-10,502 points.
Trading volume nearly quadrupled from Sunday’s level.
The break triggered a reverse head & shoulders pattern formed by the highs and lows since December and pointing up in the long term to around 12,600 points.
There was strong buying in some blue chips that are due to report second-quarter earnings in the next few weeks.
Industries Qatar surged 3.9% and Islamic bank Masraf Al Rayan added 2.0% ahead of its earnings statement after the close.
The Dubai index, which has been technically short-term bullish after it broke last week above its May and June peaks, climbed 1.4% to 3,535 points as turnover expanded to its highest level in three months.
Blue chip Emaar Properties jumped 2.2% and second-tier stocks in the sector were also bought in late trade, with Union Properties closing 2.0% higher and Deyaar adding 2.3%.
Although many analysts think Dubai housing prices and rents have further to fall, local consultancy ValuStrat said in a report on Sunday that the market had a good chance of starting to recover in the second half of 2016.
Other bourses in the region were much more subdued, with Abu Dhabi falling 0.3% although the most active stock, Methaq Takaful Insurance, jumped its 15% daily limit in its heaviest trade since December 2013.
Saudi Arabia’s index closed almost flat but National Shipping Co of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) surged 3.2% after a senior executive told Reuters that the company planned to expand its fleet of very large crude carriers to around 46 by end-2018 from 36 now, which would probably make it the world’s biggest operator of such ships.
Riyad Bank gained 0.5% after it posted a 1.6% year-on-year rise in second-quarter net profit to 1.15bn riyals ($306.6mn); analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast 1.03bn riyals.
In Kuwait, the index edged down 0.2%, but National Bank of Kuwait gained 1.7% despite reporting a below-forecast 7.2% rise in profit to 71.68mn dinars ($237.2mn). Analysts had predicted 79.04mn dinars on average.
Egypt’s index added 0.4% with real estate developer Emaar Misr, which has seen active trade in the past two days, gaining 1.6%. Dairy company Arabian Food Industries (Domty) climbed 2.0%; it is planning to invest 240mn Egyptian pounds ($27mn) in 2016-17 to fund expansion and increase production capacity, vice chairman Mohamed Damaty told Reuters.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the Kuwait index fell 0.2% to 5,380 points, Oman index dropped 0.5% to 5,844 points and the Bahrain index edged down 0.1% to 1,164 points.