Bourse witnesses sluggish performance vis-à-vis Gulf neighbours

The Qatar Exchange, which has so far witnessed a spate of corporate results, occupied a place in the extreme bottom half among the seven Gulf bourses during the week.

While the 20-stock Qatar Index and Total Return Index rose 0.4% each, Dubai saw its bourse surge 1.85%, Kuwait (1.73%), Saudi Arabia (1.15%), Abu Dhabi (0.9%), Muscat (0.78%) and Bahrain (0.29%) in the week.

Qatar’s performance was also rather sluggish vis-à-vis other Gulf neighbours year-to-date (YTD) with the key index gaining 5.19% scale, whereas Dubai and Abu Dhabi were the first two best performers with their indices expanding 16.73% and 11.56% respectively. Kuwait reported 7.81% gains, Saudi Arabia (3.85%), Bahrain (2.41%) and Muscat (2.39%).

Strong buying, especially in consumer goods, transport, telecom and banking stocks, led the QE to maintain the bullish momentum during the review week that saw news reports on looming ‘currency war’ although the G7 countries — the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy — jointly held that their fiscal and monetary policies would not target exchange rates.

Read more: http://www.gulf-times.com/business/191/details/342299/-bourse-witnesses-sluggish-performance-vis-%C3%A0-vis-gulf-neighbours