The Qatar Exchange maintained its position as the best performing market in the Middle East and north Africa (MENA) region for the second consecutive year in 2011. However, after posting a 24% increase in 2010, the exchange’s benchmark index, the QE 20, experienced a sharp slowdown in growth to 1.12% in 2011.
Like all Middle Eastern exchanges, the Qatar Exchange was hit by the political uncertainty in the MENA region that surrounded the onset of the Arab Spring uprisings. At the start of 2011, daily trading levels stood at QR5bn ($1.4bn) before falling to levels of about QR325m by July that year. Total daily trading averaged QR350m in 2011 but this has since risen marginally in 2012 and is now close to QR400m.
