Doha stock market
Stock market in Doha is alike other stock markets in the world and here also, stock trading take place at the floor of stock exchange pertaining to the different types of companies that are listed here. The main stock market of Doha is the Doha Securities Market and is also called as DSM. This stock market in Doha started operating in the year 1997. Let us now discuss the various features of Doha Stock Market.
FEATUES OF DOHA STOCK MARKET
The Doha stock market is highly developed and there are many stock trades that make the index move up and down. The main stock index of Doha Stock Market is DSM 20 and it is based upon 20 major listings here. The equities of these companies are used to find the net result in the stock market. The DSM 20 is not the averaged index but it is a weighted index. The market capitalization of these 20 companies plays an important role in the net result of the stock index. The 20 companies that makes the stock exchange as of now includes Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar International Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Qatar National Bank, Industries Qatar, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Doha Insurance, Qatar Insurance, Qatar Flour Mills, Qatar Navigation, Qatar Real Estate Investment, Qatar Shipping, Qatar Fuel, Commercial Bank, Ahli Bank, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Electricity and Water, Medical Care Group and Q-Tel or Qatar Telecom.
The stock market in Doha was established as per the law 4/1995. Doha Stock Exchange is also called as DSE and it governs all the transactions regarding the shares, bonds of different companies that are listed here. All the licensed commercial banks as well as QCB are the members of DSE. The stock market in Doha is principally traded by the various brokers here and there are set rules or licensing rules for the brokers. In case, these rules etc are broken by any broker member, the license of the broker can also be suspended. At the time of establishment of the Doha Stock Market, an international consultant was appointed to make recommendations to the steering committee attached with DSM. In the beginning, only Qatar nationals were allowed to go for the trading of stocks in different securities. Let on, GCC nationals and foreigners were allowed. At present, the Doha Stock Exchange is the autonomous body that is regulated indirectly by the Finance, Economy and Ministry. Let us now discuss about the various other aspects related to Doha Stock Market.
OTHER ASPECTS OF DOHA STOCK MARKET
There are many other aspects related to Doha Stock market that needs to be understood. There was a sharp rise that was observed in the year 2005 when the stock market grew by about 12%. The Doha stock market at present is trading between the index levels of 7000-7500 and the volume has also increased to about 6300500. The 52 week high that has been registered by the stock market in Doha is 8276.65 and the 52 week low that is observed by the market is 5825.8. There are of course some listed companies that are traded heavily on the Doha Stock exchange and these companies include AKHI, GWCS, GCCD, QFMD etc. The stock market has grown by about 7% in the past few years and is expected to do better in the coming years. It is to be noted here that the Doha stock market has shown good signs of stability during the 1998 Asian crisis. The shares of the companies listed at the Doha Stock Exchange were not affected and rather, they shown a good sign of growth. The volume of shares traded at the exchange as well as the prices of these shares also showed good growth. However it is also being argued now a days that the Doha stock market is volatile and the reason that it showed a good strength in the year 1998 is due to the reason that it was in quite a nascent stage at that time, otherwise it would have also crashed.
There are also some reasons for which it can be rightly said that the Doha stock market has good resilience. One of such reasons is that in the year 2005, there are some shares that showed growth of approximate 98% and this is something that cannot be ignored. Though it is argued that the shares that shoot up like a rocket also come down quickly. Now the question arises is that why there was growth in the share prices and no effect of crisis at all. One of the answers that are provided for the growth is the granting of various types of ownership rights to the foreigners. This resulted in the upsurge in the prices of shares due to the local people. This was done due to the anticipation that the foreign buyers would but the shares from different at quite inflated prices. But there were only few foreigners that dove into the stock market in the IPO like Naqilat, Qatar Gas Transport Company etc. Though the number of foreigner that participated were quite few, their anticipation was enough to produce the necessary spark in the prices of shares.
As far as the profit of the stock market or exchange is concerned, it is to be noted here that most of the extraordinary profit of the stock comes from the different types of investment profits from the Doha Securities Market. So, it can be rightly said that the DSM itself is responsible for its growth. The prices of stocks in the Doha Stock market are expected to rise because huge investments in oil as well as gas sectors are expected, which of course would provide a boom to the stock prices in Doha. Recently, the DSM revised its 20-scrips DSM 20 by expelling the seven low traded stocks and replacing them by other highly traded stocks. This is seen as a part of various efforts that are being taken to rationalize the stock market in Doha. The decision taken would be effective from 1st September 2007.
THUS, DOHA STOCK MARKET IS WELL DEVELOPED
After going through the above discussion, it can be rightly said that the Doha Stock Market is one of the well-developed stock markets of world. It is represented by various member brokers that facilitate all the deals. In the times to come, it is expected that the stock market would do well because of huge investments in oil and gas and foreign investments in stocks of various listed companies.
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