Market Report: Qatar Investment Fund sinks further on back of tumbling oil price

The tumbling oil price is taking its toll on the fund, which fell 6.5 cents to 93.5 cents

Nuclear sanctions on Iran have been lifted, sparking an all-out oil war between Iran and Saudi Arabia (Getty)

Fears that a wave of new oil would be unleashed on to the already flooded global market has caused shares in London-listed Qatar Investment Fund to sink further. The investment trust claims not to be an oil fund and invests in stocks on the Qatar Exchange that hope to benefit from big oil profits being ploughed back into the economy.

Nevertheless, the tumbling oil price, exacerbated by concerns of an even greater surplus created by Tehran’s reintroduction into global exports, is taking its toll on the fund, which fell 6.5 cents to 93.5 cents.

In a note on the fund last month, Julian Roberts at research house Edison said that Qatar’s stock market had shown little correlation with the oil price, which at the time was above $44 a barrel and showing signs of recovery. Now that oil is at $28 a barrel and threatening to fall further, the same cannot be said for Qatari stocks after an 18 per cent slump from its main share index so far this year.

On Monday, the fund revealed that the Qatar Insurance Company, its investment adviser, cut its shareholding by 3 per cent to 18.45 per cent.

It would be fair to say investors are concerned about the state of the markets. While the FTSE 100 did not plummet, down 24.18 at 5,779.92, the blue-chip index did finish at its lowest level in three years.

Sports Direct, whose profits and corporate governance practices have come under fire, slumped 19.4p to 390p, making it the heaviest faller this year of the biggest 350 companies on the LSE, shedding close to a third of its value.

Shares in Ocado, which has overtaken Sainsbury’s and Morrisons to become the second most shorted stocks on the LSE after Carillion, fell a further 12.1p to 242.5p, taking the 2016 share price fall to 20 per cent.

Others feeling the heat included Pets at Home, down 13.6p to 231.2p ahead of Wednesday’s trading update, and Card Factory, 20.9p cheaper at 328.4p.

On AIM, Empyrean Energy was up 2.38p to 7.38p after managing to sell its 3 per cent stake in the Marathon Oil-operated Sugarloaf project in Texas for up to $71.5m (£50m).