Qatar’s equity market and country-specific ETF climbed Monday on hopes that Doha’s diplomatic disputes with its Arab neighbors will be resolved.
The iShares MSCI Qatar Capped ETF (NasdaqGM: QAT), the lone Qatar equity-related ETF, jumped 3.2% Monday.
The Qatari foreign minister said late Sunday that Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani will attend the annual summit of Gulf Arab heads of state in Kuwait, reports Andrew Torchia for Reuters.
Investors latched onto the news, betting that Sheikh Tamim’s attendance will be a step towards renewed dialogue with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.
Qatar’s stock index, which has been hovering near six-year lows, continues to trade 20% below levels prior to the Arab states’ imposed sanctions on Qatar in June.
According to the Associated Press, the Arab countries’ demands of Qatar on June 22 include limiting diplomatic ties to Iran, shutting down the state-funded Al-Jazeera satellite news network and other media outlets, and severing ties to all “terrorist organizations,” including the Muslim Brotherhood and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Fox News reports. They also demanded Qatar expel the Turkish troops stationed in the country, along with reparations and an audit.
Qatar rejected the demands, arguing that they violated its sovereignty, and the country let the deadline and an extension pass.
Banks, which have taken a blow from outflows of Gulf deposits due to the crisis, were also among the best performers on growing optimism over the potential talks.
QAT includes a hefty 54.2% tilt toward the financial sector, followed by 16.5% industrials and 10.4% real estate.
Nevertheless, there are some skeptics as Kuwait readies to host the two-day GCC summit.
“The crisis is too deep and very complicated… I don’t think it will be resolved during the summit,” independent Kuwaiti political analyst Saleh al-Saeedi told the Daily Mail. “But I think Kuwait hopes to at least freeze the dispute, stop its deterioration and move on to the next step.”
For more information on the developing economies, visit our emerging markets category.