Qatar Shares Rise to 12-Month High as Gas Trades Near 2009 Peak

Doha’s benchmark index climbed to a year-high, after natural gas prices reached their highest level since January, boosting investor confidence in the country with the world’s third-largest gas reserves.

Doha Bank QSC advanced to the highest in more than a year, after Referans newspaper said the third-largest Qatari lender by assets wants to buy a stake in a Turkish bank and open branches there. Qatar National Bank SAQ, the country’s biggest bank, also rose. Qatar’s DSM 20 Index gained 0.9 percent to 7,624.45, the highest close since Oct. 22. Qatari shares have added 11 percent this year, while Saudi shares are up 32 percent.

“Qatar is playing catch up to the other markets right now and I think Saudi and Qatar are going to be the beef of performance in the fourth quarter,” said Yazan Abdeen, a fund manager at ING Investment Management Dubai Ltd. “Qatar benefits more from gas prices than it does from oil and the gas price only started to gain recently.”