Doha, Qatar: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) witnessed the second-best monthly return in the GCC during February-2024. The QE 20 index closed the month at 10,474.9 points witnessing a gain of 3.8%.

The Qatar All Share Index witnessed a bigger gain of 4.6% during the month indicating investor interest across the market segments. In terms of YTD performance, the QE 20 index was down 3.3%, the second-biggest decline in the GCC while the All-Share index declined by 2.1%, according to GCC markets monthly report by Kamco Invest.

The monthly sector performance reflects gains for most of the sectors. The Transportation index topped during the month with a gain of 12.7%, followed by Industrials and Real Estate indices with gains of 5.3% and 4.0%, respectively. On the other hand, the Insurance Index reported a small monthly decline of 0.4%. Gains for the Transportation index was mainly led by shares of Qatar Gas Transport and Qatar Navigation which were up by 15.3% and 6.3%, respectively, during the month, while shares of Gulf Warehousing declined by 3.3%.

Gains for the Industrial Sector were mainly led by shares of Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Qatari Investors Group which were up by 12.5% and 10.4%, respectively. In the telecom sector, shares of Ooredoo gained 6.3% while shares of Vodafone Qatar declined by 8.9%.

The Insurance Sector was dragged down by losses in most of the constituent stocks including Al Khaleej Takaful Group (-5.3%), Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance (- 5.0%) and QLM Life & Medical Insurance (-4.9%), while the shares of Qatar Islamic Insurance Group registered a gain of 3.4%. Most of the constituents in the Banks and Financial Services sector witnessed gains during the month, the report stated.

The GCC index surged to a 16-month high led by a broad-based rally. The positive sentiments across financial markets globally pushed GCC market index to the highest level since November-2022 during the third week of February-2024. The MSCI GCC index remained elevated by the end of the month and closed after receding marginally in the last week with gain of 4.2%.

The positive performance came despite three out of seven exchanges in the GCC witnessing declines during the month. The monthly gains also fully offset the declines during January-2024 resulting in a YTD-2024 gain of 3.3% for the MSCI GCC Index.

The report noted, Saudi Arabia was the best performing market during the month with a gain of 7.1% followed by Qatar and Dubai with gains of 3.8% and 3.4%, respectively. Kuwait’s All Share Index also showed a gain of 2.4%. On the decliner’s side, Bahrain reported the biggest decline during the month (-3.0%) followed by Abu Dhabi and Oman with relatively smaller declines.

The sector performance for the GCC showed a broad-based growth in all sectors with the Insurance index at the top with a gain of 19.5% followed by Consumer Durable & Apparel and Healthcare indices with gains of 12.6% and 11.4%, respectively. Large-cap sectors like Energy and Banks showed low-single digit gains of 3.5% and 3.8%, respectively.

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