Dubai: Shares in Qatari bank stocks rose Sunday and Commercial Bank of Qatar climbed 1 per cent. Qatar National Bank, due to report quarterly earnings on Wednesday, rose 0.7 per cent.
On Thursday, Goldman Sachs began coverage of Qatar National Bank (QNB) and Doha Bank with "buy" ratings, and said Qatari banks are well-capitalised, with the highest level of provisions in the Ceemea space.
The benchmark ended 0.3 per cent higher at 7,720 points.
Other regional bourses also ended higher. Oman's index rose 0.4 per cent to end at 6,501 and Bahrain's index ended 0.3 per cent higher at 1,449. Kuwait's measure ended almost flat at 6,987.
Industrial stocks attracted buying in Oman amid rising global commodities prices, lifting the index.
Jazeera Steel rose 2.5 per cent and Oman Cables Industry gained 2.9 per cent.
Oil, copper and gold prices rallied last week but agricultural markets saw a massive sell-off.
Main trigger
"There is buying in the industrial sector due to the big surge in commodities prices during the weekend — this is the main trigger for the stock movement," said Adel Nasr at United Securities in Muscat.
Shares in Kuwaiti tele-coms services provider Zain rose nearly 3 per cent after trading resumed, but the move had a negligible impact on the bourse.
The Emirates Telecommunications Corp, the Gulf's second largest tele-com company, last week bid 1.7 dinars (Dh21.9) for a 46 per cent stake in Zain.
The index edged 0.1 per cent higher to 6,993, extending gains from Thursday's session when the benchmark hit a four-month high.
Gulf stock markets could rally on the back of positive global sentiment and tele-coms are likely to remain in focus, but some stocks may come under pressure ahead of quarterly company results.
"It should be a good week," says Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor.
"The international economic climate is relatively good, oil prices are good, recent bond issues from the region — Dubai and Morocco — are selling well. So there is an interesting flow."
"As quarterly earnings announcements draw nearer, investors reposition themselves depending on forecasts they receive and these tend to be very disparate," says Turki Fadak, a member of Jeddah's Trade Chamber's financial markets committee.
"Things are reassuring with oil prices at a healthy $80 (Dh293) per barrel although the continued rise in gold prices is pressuring the dollar and is eroding Gulf currencies' strength."
