Qatar’s capital markets are currently going through a time of major new initiatives, with reforms and structural improvements rolling out. These target the widening and strengthening of the existing Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), while also preparing the ground for additional capital market innovation. These steps come following 2024 witnessing strong earnings and revenue expansion for listed organisations. The year also saw the net profits of listed organisations expand 8.7%, to a total of QR51.2bn ($14.1bn) – a positive that is standing the market in good stead during the more tumultuous first months of 2025. By sector, telecommunications and energy continued to record the strongest performance during 2024, with health care, real estate, industrials and financials each also seeing positive returns.
While Qatar has seen a period of limited initial public offering (IPO) activity, there are signs that 2025 could see the reactivation of new listings. The debt market saw some bond concerns during 2024, both from corporate and sovereign entities. While 2025 may hold some external uncertainties in the global context, Qatar’s capital markets are well placed to weather the storms and continue to provide a safe and dependable market for investors.
Oversight
The regulation of capital markets in Qatar is the responsibility of the Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA). This was established as part of Law No. 33 of 2005 and began working in 2007, when it took over all the previous functions of the Doha Securities Market (DSM). The 2005 regulation was then updated by Law No. 8 of 2012, which establishes the current judicial basis for the authority. The QFMA is run by its board, which, in March 2025 witnessed the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, designate Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani as chairman, and appoint Sheikh Ahmed bin Khalid bin Ahmed bin Sultan Al Thani as vice-chairman. The QFMA licences financial institutions for the conducting of business in Qatar, while also licensing securities for trading on the QSE. It also has a duty to develop the capital markets in the country, to follow up on disclosures, ensure market integrity and transparency, and issue rules and regulations in line with international standards and best practices. The QFMA thus supervises and regulates the QSE, formerly the DSM, which was established back in 1995. The name was changed in 2009 to the QSE following an agreement between Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) – the country’s sovereign wealth fund – and New York Stock Exchange Euronext. In 2011 the QSE launched a debt market, with the following year witnessing the creation of the QSE Venture Market, which targeted listings for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In 2013 the QSE was then upgraded by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) to emerging market status, a rank it subsequently received from the FTSE in 2015.
Further milestones in the exchange’s history include its launching of the first sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) platform in the region in 2018; a 2019 successful stock split of all listed securities; the launching of an ESG index in 2021, in collaboration with MSCI; and the launch of a new trading platform in 2023, when a permanent market-making programme was also launched. The QSE, which is 100% owned by QIA subsidiary Qatar Holding, is managed by its board, which, in March 2025, appointed Abdulla Mohammed Al Ansari as CEO. This followed a restructuring of the board in February 2025. In this, Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al Thani was made chairman and Mohammed Saif Al Sowaidi vice-chairman. The QFMA also supervises the country’s sole licensed depository, the Qatar Central Securities Depository, or Edaa.
Market Structure
The QSE is divided into a main market, the venture market, fixed income and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Starting with the main market, as of April 2025, some 85.7% of the portfolios held were held by Qatari nationals and 14.3% held by foreigners. Some 99.1% of those investors were individuals, with 0.8% institutions and 0.1% government. There are also three indexes. The first is the QE Index, which gathers the 20 largest and most liquid stocks together. This is calculated according to a formula that gives a 50% weight to free-float market capitalisation and 50% to average daily value traded. The QE Total Return Index, meanwhile, measures only the price component of those 20 top stocks. The QE All Share Index then covers all listed stocks with a share velocity greater than 1%. These shares are broken down according to sector, with seven of these listed: banking and financial services, consumer goods and services, industrials, insurance, real estate, telecommunications and transport. There is also the QE Al Rayan Islamic Index, which includes organisations that meet sharia compliance criteria.
Priority Sectors
Of the seven sectors, banking is by far the largest in terms of market capitalisation. In March 2025, total market capitalisation for the QSE main market was QR600.7bn ($164.9bn), with QR148.7bn ($40.8bn) of that – approximately 25% – accounted for by one entity: Qatar National Bank Group (QNB Group). Eight other lenders are included in this sector, with the second largest by market capitalisation being Qatar Islamic Bank, with QR47.7bn ($13.1bn); followed by Al Rayan, with QR20.9bn ($5.7bn); Dukhan Bank, with QR18.4bn ($5.1bn); Commercial Bank of Qatar and Kuwait, with QR16.9bn ($4.6bn); and Qatar International Islamic Bank, with QR15.4bn ($4.2bn). Three smaller banks – Doha Bank, Ahli Bank and Lesha Bank – are also listed. The market capitalisation of all these combined come to approximately QR135.4bn ($37.2bn), making banking responsible for roughly half the QSE main market’s total market capitalisation. This sector also includes four leasing, holding and investment organisations, with an additional combined market capitalisation of around QR850m ($233m).
The next largest sector by market capitalisation was industry, led by Industries Qatar, with market capitalisation of QR78bn ($21.4bn) in March 2025. This was followed by Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company, with QR18.1bn ($5bn); Qatar Electricity and Water, with QR16.4bn ($4.5bn); Estithmar Holding, with QR8.8bn ($2.4bn); and Qatar Aluminium, with QR7.1bn ($1.9bn). Five other companies make up the sector, with an additional QR16.6bn ($4.6bn) in market capitalisation between them, giving the sector a total rate of around QR144.8bn ($39.7bn).
Telecommunications is another major sector for Qatar, with its two listed organisations – Ooredoo and Vodafone Qatar – having market capitalisation totals of QR37.1bn ($10.2bn) and QR8.3bn ($2.3bn), respectively, as of March 2025. Transport had three listed firms – Qatar Navigation, Gulf Warehousing Company and Nakliat, with market capitalisation totals of QR12.5bn ($3.4bn), QR1.8bn ($494m) and QR25.8bn ($7.1bn), respectively, as of March 2025.
Real estate had four listed organisations – United Development Company (UDC), Barwa, Ezdan and Mazaya Real Estate Development (MRED). Ezdan was the largest by market capitalisation in March 2025, at QR25.9bn ($7.1bn), followed by Barwa, with QR10.3bn ($2.8bn); UDC, with QR3.6bn ($988m); and MRED, with QR570m ($156m).
Seven companies were listed on the insurance board – Qatar Insurance, Doha Insurance Group, QLM Life and Medical Insurance, General Insurance, Alkhaleej Takaful, Islamic Insurance and Beema. The respective market capitalisation rates of these entities were QR6bn ($1.6bn), QR1.2bn ($329m), QR660m ($181m), QR930m ($255m), QR580m ($159m), QR1.3bn ($357m) and QR760m ($209m).
Consumer goods and services is the largest sector by numbers of companies, with 14 listed. These include holdings with a diverse portfolio, medical institutions, retail outfits, and food and beverage providers. The largest by market capitalisation as of March 2025 was Qatar Fuels, with QR14.8bn ($4.1bn), followed by Zad Holding Company, with QR4.2bn ($1.2bn). Other organisations with a market capitalisation over QR1bn ($274m) include Al Meera, with QR3.1bn ($851m), Baladna, with QR2.3bn ($631m), Mannai Corporation, with QR1.6bn ($439m), and Medicare, with QR1.3bn ($357m).
Elsewhere, the QSE Venture Market is designed to nurture smaller cap companies before entering the main market. This market contained one company as of March 2025 – TechnoQ. This had a market capitalisation of QR237.8m ($65.3m).
Fixed Income
At the same time, the fixed income market had some 48 bonds, sukuk (Islamic bonds) and treasuries listed as of March 2025. Qatar’s debt capital market (DCM) is the third-largest in the GCC, after Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The market reached around $130bn at the end of the first half of 2024, with sukuk accounting for around 10% of this figure.
Two ETFs were also listed on the ETF market – the QE Index ETF (QETF) and Al Rayan Qatar ETF (QATR). QETF’s assets under management amounted to QR433.6m ($119m), while QATR’s totalled QR460.9m ($126.5m). The market is highly concentrated in banking and a few leading industrial, telecommunications and transport companies. Indeed, in 2023 the top-10 companies accounted for roughly 72.9% of total market capitalisation, led by QNB Group (24.4%) and Industries Qatar (12.7%). The central goal of QSE market development is of widening and deepening this range, bringing more firms to market and boosting diversification. To achieve this, a number of strategies are currently being rolled out.
Plans & Programmes
Qatar’s overall, long-term development plan is Qatar National Vision 2030. Within this, there are a series of sectoral programmes, with the capital markets coming under a series of plans, the most current one being the Third Financial Sector Strategy. This covers the period 2024-30. Put together after wide consultation by the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) – which has responsibility for the overall financial sector – the plan applies five themes across banking, insurance, the digital finance ecosystem and capital markets. The plan is centred around five key areas: improving governance and regulatory oversight; developing Islamic finance; enhancing digital innovation and advanced technologies; promoting ESG and sustainability; and fostering talent and capabilities.
For the capital markets, the application of those themes entails widening and strengthening equities, fixed income and asset management while also developing the market to include a derivatives exchange, with the overall objective of making the QSE the region’s leading platform. Islamic finance offerings are also to be improved, along with access for SMEs and other investors. More sukuk issuances can strengthen the fixed income segment, along with more secondary trading of all kinds of bonds. Easing asset management for foreign nationals is also targeted, along with support via custody activities.
An enhanced regulatory environment is also envisaged by the Third Financial Sector Strategy 2024-30, ensuring market transparency and elevated standards of investor governance, as well as investor protection. Advanced technological infrastructure will also go with this. The result of these measures should also include the QSE advancing from emerging market to developed market status.
Implementation
The Third Financial Sector Strategic Plan is being implemented as part of the Third Financial Sector Strategy 2024-30. In the period since its rollout, efforts to reach many of its goals have already yielded positive results. The 2023 anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism mutual evaluation report by the Financial Action Task Force noted significant progress in the prevention of financial crimes through policy and regulatory improvements. In 2024, 10 major listed organisations took advantage of new rules allowing interim distribution of dividends to issue payouts in the first half of the year, further enhancing the QSE’s appeal to foreign and local investors. QNB Group announced a share buyback programme, enhancing shareholder value. Share buybacks continued into 2025, with Industries Qatar announcing a buyback of up to $1bn in February of that year.
In January 2025 the QSE announced an upgraded index review schedule, moving to a quarterly basis. These reviews will help ensure that weighting in the market is more up to date and balanced, reflecting market conditions and boosting transparency. JP Morgan then reclassified Qatar, along with Kuwait, as developed markets, removing them from its Emerging Markets Bond Index starting from the end of March of 2025. The move is expected to increase flows into the Qatari bond market from developed-market investors. Given Qatar’s historical standing as a stable emerging market for bonds, due to its robust current account surpluses, the move cements the longer-term trend in Qatar’s market development. With the government’s 2025 budget deficit, this reclassification could benefit Qatar as it seeks to close this gap with more external borrowing. Indeed, in February 2025 Qatar sold $3bn US dollar bonds – $1bn three-year, senior unsecured notes and $2bn 10-year bonds – as part of this budget shortfall programme, listing them on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), with which Qatar has had a long and close relationship.
In March 2025 the QSE announced the official launch of the Al Nukhba Programme. This is aimed at enhancing the financial market literacy of nationals who work for Qatari family-owned and other private enterprises via education and training courses. Al Nukhba also includes a digital platform and opportunities for networking and training with international and domestic consultancies. This should help with the Third Financial Sector Strategy 2024-30 goal of boosting local talent and capability.
March 2025 also saw the QSE help boost liquidity and stimulate trading activity via two moves on fees and commissions. First, the exchange announced it was removing its minimum trading commission. From March 2025 a fixed proportional commission rate of 0.00275% applies instead. This should make smaller trades more profitable for both companies and brokers, increasing trading volumes overall, in line with the Third Financial Sector Strategy 2024-30 goals. Secondly, the QSE announced it was waving trading fees for ETFs. This move is expected to boost liquidity and stimulate trading in ETFs and the asset management segment. It should also aid investors’ portfolio diversification by making ETFs a more attractive proposition.
Performance
The QSE has recorded significant growth in the last few years. In 2023 the exchange main index closed the year 1.4% up on from the close of 2022, at 10,830.63 points. Total market capitalisation, meanwhile had risen 2.7%, year-on-year, standing at QR624.6bn ($171.4bn) at the close. Three new companies listed in 2023 – Dukhan Bank, Beema and Meeza QSTP. Mekdam Holding upgraded to the main market, while Al Mahhar Holding joined the venture market. The following year saw an overall decline in the QE Index, however, closing 2024 at 10,571.09. At the same time, all sectors experienced earnings growth during the year, except financial services. This was balanced somewhat by the return to earnings growth by insurance, which recorded a loss in 2023. Overall, 2024 saw earnings of QR51.5bn ($14.1bn) compared to QR47.5bn ($13bn) in 2023, a rise of 8.4%. On a sectoral basis, the banking sector continued to outperform the QSE Index overall, ending the fourth quarter of 2024 up 3.4%, year-on-year, while the index itself dropped 2.4%. Banks were trading at a price-to-book (P/B) multiple of 1.3 and a return on equity of 13.4% at the end of 2024. Industrials, meanwhile, closed the year with a price-to-earnings (P/E) multiple of 15.5. Earnings were QR9.3bn ($2.55bn), which was slightly down on 2023’s QR9.4bn ($2.58bn). Consumer goods and services also saw a decline in their earnings, from QR670m ($184m) in 2023 to QR550m ($151m) in 2024, with the year ending at a sectoral P/E multiple of 16.3 and a dividend yield of 4.9%. Insurance saw strong revenue growth from Qatar Insurance and Doha Insurance Group, which helped the sector turn its 2023 loss of QR360m ($98.8m) into a profit of QR1.3bn ($357m). The sector’s P/E multiple at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024 stood at 8.9, with a dividend yield of 5.2%.
Telecommunications, meanwhile, was trading in 2024 at a P/E multiple of 11.3 and a dividend yield of 5.7%, while earnings showed significant growth, expanding from QR3.6bn ($988m) in 2023 to QR4bn ($1.1bn) in 2024. Transport witnessed revenue growth, from QR2.8bn ($768m) to QR2.9bn ($796m) over the same period, with the year closing at a P/E multiple of 13.6 and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Real estate, however, saw earnings drop from QR1.8bn ($494m) to QR1.7bn ($467m), with a P/E multiple of 24 and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Other events in equities during the year included Al Faleh Educational Holding entering the main market in January. There were no IPOs during the year, but GISS announced its intention to list its fully owned subsidiary, AlKoot Insurance, on the QSE in 2025.
The Qatari DCM, meanwhile, has seen increased activity as the government continues debt repayments and banks are looking to diversify their asset bases. In the first half of 2024 sukuk issuance was up 122% and bond issuance up 59% year-on-year. In June of that year the QCB issued its ESG and sustainability strategy for the financial sector, with this expected to further boost the issuance of ESG sukuk and bonds. Highlights of issuances during the year included Doha Bank’s successful issuance of a $500m five-year international bond in March, while in September Estithmar Holding issued a QR500m ($137m) sukuk on the LSE – the first corporate sukuk to be issued in Qatari riyals. The first quarter of 2025 saw significant global uncertainty, with stock markets around the world experiencing declines. As of March 2025, the QSE stood at 10,185.78, down 3.6% from the start of the year. The P/E multiple was 11.16, P/B 1.24 and the dividend yield 4.9%.
Digital Transformation
Qatar’s capital markets are experiencing an ongoing transformation in digital infrastructure as they shift towards next-generation trading technologies that are critical for sustaining international competitiveness. In June 2023 the QSE launched an advanced, cloud-based trading platform. Built on advanced technology similar to that adopted by leading global exchanges – including solutions provided by the LSE Group – the new platform has been engineered for ultra-low latency.
Meanwhile, the QCB’s Third Financial Sector Strategy 2024–30 emphasises digital innovation as a core component for national financial development. One of its four strategic pillars is a digital finance ecosystem focusing on advancing digital transformation and optimising data management, as well as upgrading payment infrastructure. At the same time, one of the cross-cutting themes is the promotion of digital innovation and advanced technologies, bolstering the use of emerging technologies while coordinating efforts across diverse sectors to unlock potential across all financial services.
ESG Considerations
Qatar’s emphasis on ESG principles is poised to reshape its capital markets over the coming years. This began in earnest with QSE’s 2021 ESG Index, developed in collaboration with MSCI, which set a regional benchmark by identifying the top-20 securities with the strongest ESG profiles. The QCB’s ESG and Sustainability Strategy for the Financial Sector – announced in June 2024 – aims to enhance transparency in ESG risk management and data reporting. While enhanced disclosure is a significant component of the strategy, the mandate targets a broad range of financial institutions rather than being limited solely to listed entities. In practice, this means that regulated lenders, insurers and other financial entities are expected to improve their ESG data practices, which could eventually influence reporting for publicly listed organisations as well.
Corporate entities such as Industries Qatar have begun embedding ESG metrics into their sustainability strategies, a trend likely to accelerate as institutional investors prioritise climate-aligned portfolios. International ratings agency Fitch projects that ESG-compliant assets in Qatar’s debt market stood at $3.8bn in mid-2024, 19.5% of which were sukuk-compliant assets. By early 2023 an estimated 17.4% of all sustainable finance initiatives in the MENA region were located in Qatar.
On an international level, in December 2024 Qatar launched trading of its first green bonds on the LSE, marking a significant step in its commitment to ESG-orientated investment tools. The green bonds, issued by the Ministry of Finance in May 2024, are designed to provide financing for environmentally friendly projects, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable infrastructure initiatives. The launch of trading aligns with Qatar’s broader efforts to enhance cooperation with international financial institutions and expand economic partnerships globally. By entering the green bond market, Qatar underscores its commitment to financing sustainable development. In addition, the establishment of these green bonds on a major international platform is expected to attract global investors interested in the project’s scope and its ESG credentials, thereby bolstering Qatar’s role in the international financial landscape and contributing to global environmental targets.
Outlook
As of the first half of 2025 global markets were facing headwinds, following larger-than-expected US tariff hikes and retaliatory moves by a number of major international economies, such as China. While Qatar initially received a more muted 10% tariff from the US, the impact of these uncertainties and slowdowns in the global economy on the QSE and other Gulf exchanges and economies is still likely to be significant. However, the QSE will benefit from strong public institutional backing, as well as highly capitalised and robust market players.
Current plans to widen and deepen the market are expected to continue to roll out, enhancing the QSE’s attractiveness, while increased digitalisation will also lead to greater efficiency and transparency. Meanwhile, the government’s DCM will continue to see increased activity, as debt is paid down and corporate sukuk and bond issuances add to risk-spreading diversity in company portfolios. The years ahead will likely lead to instability for some in the world’s capital markets. For Qatar, however, it may also be a time of opportunity, as assets are revalued and old arrangements are replaced by new partnerships.
OBG would like to thank the Qatar Stock Exchange for its contribution to THE REPORT: Qatar 2025
Read More from OBG
