Qatar's securities market comprising stocks, treasury bills and government bonds ended the last fiscal year 2013 with significant growth rates. Qatar Financial Markets Authority's (QFMA) 2013 Annual Report released here outlines the market results with official data. The Authority says, the market value of Qatar Exchange-listed (QE) shares reached QR 555.6 Billion (US$152.2 Billion) in 2013. This represents a growth rate of 20.8% compared to QR 459.8 Billion ($125.16 Billion) in 2012, the Authority says, citing QE data. The QFMA Chairman HE Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani lauds the country's financial regulators for taking decisions to propel Qatar as a regional financial and capital markets centre in the preamble of the 2013 Annual Report. He hails a series of decisions taken by regulators here last year to expand Qatar into a regional financial hub that won the securities' market status upgrade, membership to nodal bodies, international recognition, and attract foreign direct investments as well as foreign technology. The QFMA played a pivotal role in drafting a unified strategy to boost financial services and human resources over the next five years that planners launched last year. The Authority co-operated with other regulators such as Qatar Central bank (QCB) and Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) to this end, he said. In 2013, the QE benchmark index reached 10,379.59 points, an increase by 24.17% compared to 8,358.94 points at the end of December 2012. In 2013, the value of traded shares reached QR 74.8 Billion (US$20.4 Billion), a growth of 5.96% compared to QR 71 Billion (US$ 19.45) in 2012. New shares listed by companies to increase their capital added up to 247.2 million share which increased QE's total shares to 10.536 billion in 2013 compared to 10.288 billion shares in 2012. Although QE noted an increase in volume of trade, the number of traded shares declined by 20.2% to 1,937,534,283 in 2013 compared to 2,428,190,041 in 2012. The 961,811 transactions registered in 2013 is a growth by 9.09% compared to 881,638 transactions in 2012. The total number of registered investors slightly increased to 968,343 in 2013 from 964,548 in 2012. Qatari investors comprised 295,279 and 673,064 non-Qataris in 2013 while previous year it was 294,423 and 670,125 respectively. The number of registered investors in 2013 was 295,279 comprising 290,496 Qatari individual investors and 4,783 Qatari institutions. The number of registered traders in 2013 was 25,063 comprising 24,616 Qatari and 447 Qatari institutions. The number of registered non-Qatari investors in 2013 was 673,064, comprising 670,193 individuals and 2,871 institutions. The number of registered non-Qatari traders was 21,145, comprising 20,403 individuals and 742 institutions in 2013. Qatar debt market saw listing 3.39 million short-term Treasury Bills (T-Bills) with maturity terms of three, six and nine months during 2013. Demand was higher for three-month T-Bills with 1.305 million subscriptions. The nominal value of all issued T-Bills added up to QR 33.95 Billion, a drop by 19.28% compared to QR 43.3 Billion in 2012. The volume of trading increased in 2013. The value of 401,000 traded T-Bills reached QR 3.98 Billion from 51 transactions compared to QR 793 Million from 25 transactions of 80,100 traded T-Bills in 2012. Trading in government bonds debuted in 2013. The traded value reached QR 1.5 Billion with trading 150,000 bonds from 17 transactions. Regulators named a central depository last year to clear and settle Qatar Exchange transactions. QE stood fifth in a comparison of the percentage change in indices of GCC markets in 2013 from 2012 data. Dubai Stock Exchange index topped, closing 1023 at 3,369.81 up 107.6% from 1,622.53 in 2012. QE's percentage change was higher than Muscat Securities Market (+19.2%) and Bahrain Bourse (+17.2%). QE came second in terms of market value ($152.2 Billion) after Saudi Stock Exchange ($459.45 Billion) among GCC markets. Source: Qatar News Agency
