Doha bourse trading will be from 9:30 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.DOHA: Qatar's market watchdog said the trading hours on the Qatar Exchange will be extended to bring it more in line with other Gulf stock markets. The Qatar Financial Markets Authority said in a statement Wednesday that trading on the Doha bourse will take place between 0630 GMT and 1000 GMT. It didn't give a starting date for the new trading hours. According to the Qatar Exchange's website, trading currently begins at 0700 GMT and ends at 0945 GMT, Sunday through Thursday. Doha's market recorded a daily average trading volume of about $73.2 million in 2010, down from about $99.7 million in 2009, according to Zawya.com. "Most of the markets in the Gulf like Saudi Arabia and Egypt have longer trading hours," said Thamer Jadallah, head of investments at the Almana Group in Doha. Saudi's stock market, or Tadawul, is open from 0800 GMT to 1230 GMT. The QFMA said it also would change the tick sizes, or the minimum price movement of a stock. The tick size would be one dirham for a stock valued at less than 25 Qatari riyals ($6.87), five dirhams for a share between 25 riyals and 50 riyals, and 10 dirhams when a stock price is above 50 riyals. There are 100 dirhams to one riyal. Jadallah said the move was aimed at decreasing "speculation on lower price shares." "They (the financial authorities) want to encourage more investing rather than just trading," he said. Nasser Al Shaibi, QFMA CEO, clarified that these decisions are in line with the regulations and laws approved recently by the authority with the aim to develop trading mechanisms in the stock exchange in order to cope with the development of the capital markets in the country. He added that the Qatar Exchange, in coordination with the QFMA, will take the necessary measures to implement these decisions. Meanwhile, earlier report said Qatar Central Bank's foreign currency reserves rose by QR15.3 billion to QR83.3 billion ($23 billion) by July this year, up from QR68 billion in January 2010, Qatar News Agency said. The foreign currency reserves have risen during the past years from QR35.5 billion in 2008, QR40 billion in January 2009, QR47.3 billion in April 2009, QR60.5 billion in September 2009 to QR66.8 billion at the end of 2009. Gold reserves rose by QR140 million to QR1.7 billion from last January. Gold reserves have also risen in the past years from QR66.5 million in 2004 to QR1.2 billion in 2007, to QR1.3 billion in 2008 and to QR1.7 billion recently.
