Investors gain QR41.97bn as DSM soars

Investors on the Qatari bourse became richer by a staggering over $11bn (QR41.97bn) in a single trading day yesterday as stocks rallied massively on reports of the government pumping an incredible QR15bn into the local banking system.

The 20-share main index of the bourse, the Doha Securities Market (DSM), shot up more than 390 points in a tizzy, to almost reach the 7,000-mark (6,981). The rise in percentage terms was 5.92.

“Banking is a key sector on the Qatari bourse so the impact of the state support has been so overwhelming,” said analyst

Thamer Hssan.

The counters have the potential to impact all other sectors, he added.

Reopening after weekly closure, during which the key government announcement came, the bourse witnessed feverish demand, pushing the lenders’ stocks up by a record 7.65 percent.

Doha Bank led the gainers on the index with a 9.97 percent jump. Qatar Islamic Bank trailed in with a marginally less percentage gain in an overall rally which analysts attributed to the state setting up a QR15bn ($4.1bn) fund to buy banks’ property portfolios.

This is the third time since the onset of the global recession late last year that the state has propped up listed banks pumping billions of riyals into the system. The latest support is aimed at pushing more liquidity into the banking industry so that lending to the real estate sector

is not affected.

The move aims at making sure that the record growth levels the national economy has been witnessing might not get adversely impacted, even slightly, due to the slowdown in the real
estate sector.

As a result, real estate stocks also rose on the back of increased demand. Barwa and Qatar Real Estate showed advances by more than five and six percent, respectively. Industrial counters witnessed the second largest increase after the banking stocks, while the insurance sector advanced a little more than two percent.

Trading value soared to breach the QR1bn-mark (QR1.19bn). It normally hovers around QR500m to QR600m levels. Trading volumes were close to the 40 million mark.

More than 15,400 deals were concluded by the close of trading. “This is one of the highest rallies on the DSM this year, the last being early in March,” said Hassan. “You can see that 37 of the 38 stocks that were traded yesterday were up.”

Original Article from: The Peninsula

Qatar to record highest GDP growth in world

Qatar’s per capita income has crossed the magical $70,000-mark making it one of the top 10 wealthiest nations in the world.

The country is also poised to report the highest economic growth in the world for the current year, says a prominent Kuwait-based financial

research firm.

Global Investment House said in a country report yesterday, quoting Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA), that Qatar’s per capita income was lifted to a record $70,630 as nominal gross domestic product (GDP) soared to a landmark QR372.4bn ($102.3bn) for 2008 with a growth of 44 percent. While Qatar Central Bank (QCB) estimates suggest a seven to nine percent economic growth for the current year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts real GDP growth at 15 to 18 percent.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), on the other hand, projects real GDP growth of 13.4 percent, said Global. “According to such estimates, Qatar is on the way to reporting the highest economic growth in the world
for 2009.”

Original Article from: The Peninsula