Qatar index ends higher, bucks trend

Qatar's benchmark ends higher despite a drop in oil prices and a sell-off in regional markets as investors buy into banks and property stocks to take advantage of low valuations. Qatar International Bank ends 2.4 per cent higher, while Al Khaliji Bank adds 2.3 per cent. Doha Bank ends 1.4 per cent higher, while Barwa Real Estate gains 1.4 per cent. The index ends 0.7 per cent higher. "If you see the sharp correction that the Qatari banks have gone through in the recent past, I don't think it was a strategic decision from institutional investors to do so," says Samer al-Jaouni, general manager of Middle East Financial Brokerage. "This market has enough fundamentals to justify the level that it is at now and also attract investors." Oil fell more than $2 to around $72 and world stocks fell on Tuesday as expectations that slowing growth in China and the euro zone would hamper the global economic recovery hit risky assets.