Qatar off 5-yr low as local traders buy, Saudi index nosedives

Reuters

Qatar’s stock index came slightly off a five-year low on Tuesday as local funds intensified their buying of those shares, while Saudi Arabia was the region’s worst performer.
The Doha index had recorded 11 straight sessions of losses, reflecting a lack of foreign investor confidence in a speedy resolution to the Gulf diplomatic crisis.
Local investors, however, have been net buyers for several weeks and on Tuesday they made up roughly three-quarters of the total market turnover, bourse data showed, helping lift the index 0.1 percent higher.
Twenty shares rose including Qatar Gas Transport, which added 1.4 percent, and 16 others declined, including Qatar Insurance, which lost 2.5 percent. It had dropped 2.3 percent on Monday after the company said it was closing its Abu Dhabi branch because it had not been able to obtain a licence.
In Abu Dhabi, Dana Gas rose 1.3 percent ahead of a London High Court hearing over the validity of its sukuk. Last week Dana dismissed a proposal from bondholders for a
restructuring of the $700 million
Islamic bond.
The main index added 0.3 percent. In neighbouring Dubai, the index fell back 0.2 percent, weighed down by profit-taking on some of the previous session’s top gainers. Theme park operator DXB Entertainments lost 4.1 percent.
The Saudi index fell 0.6 percent as 10 of its 12 banking stocks declined including National Commercial Bank , which lost 1.5 percent.
At a two-day meeting beginning later on Tuesday, the US Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady, with investors looking for clues on its anticipated pace of further tightening later this year and next. The market is pricing in an approximately even chance of a hike in December.
Most Gulf currencies are pegged to the dollar and any monetary policy change in the United States is usually mimicked by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.