Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Continuing its upward trend for the sixth trading session in a row, Qatar's bourse closed 1 percent higher in active trade on Thursday.
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) main index added 87.69 points to reach 9,135.86 points as investors positioned themselves for annual dividends.
The blue chips, which represent 42 percent of the QSE general index's relative weight, made impressive gains with Industries Qatar, Qatar National Bank and Masraf Al Rayan gaining 1.91 percent, 1.53 percent and 0.69 percent respectively.
The QSE's liquidity declined to QR292.32 million from QR584.65 million a day earlier, while the trading volume dropped to 12.86 million shares against 15.61 million in the previous session.
The day saw six of the seven sector indices close in the red with the goods and services sector leading the gainers.
The goods sector added 2.56 percent on the back of Medicare Group's 6.94 percent gain. Medicare Group also saw its highest volume of trade since last March.
Similarly, the banking sector rose 1.22 percent after Islamic Holding Group jumped 7.87 percent. Doha Bank surged 3.7 percent in its heaviest trade since the end of November.
The industrial sector and the real estate sector, which gained 0.97 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, were also instrumental in lifting the index higher.
Only transportation sector closed in the negative territory as it declined 1.43 percent after Nakilat slid 1.78 percent.
Qatar First Bank, which rose 0.3 percent, spearheaded the QSE in terms of trading volume with 3.6 million shares, while Industries Qatar led the market in terms of liquidity with QR26.7 million.
The day also saw 28 of the 42 stocks traded on the day make gains. The rest of the 14 stocks declined.
Qatari shareholders remained bullish throughout the day as they accounted for 62.99 percent of the total buy. They remained net buyers at the end of the day's session accounting for 57.66 percent of the total sell.
Both Islamic and conventional stocks closed in the green with conventional stocks faring a little better than the Islamic ones.
Meanwhile, most major Gulf stock markets also rose on Thursday after oil prices hit new two-and-half year highs.