Qatari shares took a massive beating yesterday with the index of the Doha Securities Market (DSM) shedding 7.01 percent, or a huge 424.40 points, to close at 5,632.3.
At least three stocks, all from the banking counters, lost more than nine percent while shares from several other sectors shed value by between five and nine percent.
The maximum cap by which a share is allowed to fluctuate on a single trading day is 10 percent.
“We are witnessing such a steep fall in years,” commented an analyst, asking not to be identified. There are hardly any buys and sells and this is not peculiar to the DSM. Other equity markets in the region are behaving almost the same way,” he said.
Since July last year, foreign institutional investors have been exiting the market here, arguably for liquidity, as they have been losing heavily in the markets in their home countries. Ever since, local stocks have been losing, to the extent that the index, which was hovering at over 12,000 points then, nosedived to almost 5,000. “I fear the benchmark index may touch the nadir of 5,000 again,” the analyst said.
http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=January2009&file=Local_News2009011633237.xml
Follow us on our social media channels:
@ILQlive
@ILQlive
@ILoveQtr
ILoveQatar
