Qatar's stock market closed sharply lower on Monday as traders cited outflows of funds due to changes in MSCI's emerging market index and concern about the impact of low oil and gas prices on the Qatari economy.
The main index tumbled 4.4 per cent to a two-year low of 10,091 points in the heaviest trading volume for six months.
Index compiler MSCI was due to add overseas-listed Chinese companies to its emerging market index after the close on Monday; EFG Hermes calculated in mid-November that by diluting Qatar's weighting in the index, this would suck $92 million from the Qatari market.
That is not a large amount compared to Qatar's market capitalisation of $155 billion, but selling of stocks by passive funds in line with the MSCI rebalancing on Monday was met by an absence of buying interest, the traders said.
Dubai closed up 0.4 per cent and Abu Dhabi ended 1.5 per cent higher. Saudi Arabia was down 0.1 per cent in late trade. - Reuters
