By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter


Overcoming the selling pressure from local retail investors, the Qatar Exchange (QE) landed in the positive turf and its key index briefly touched a new 27-month high during the week.

However, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Muscat bourses were splendid in their performance with their key indices returning double-digit appreciation year-to-date (YTD).

Strong buying interests of domestic institutions and lower selling from their foreign counterparts helped the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 0.78% in the review week that otherwise saw Dubai surge 5.43%, Abu Dhabi (4.3%), Muscat (2%), Kuwait (1.71%) and Bahrain (1.19%); while Saudi Arabia fell 0.82%.

Real estate, consumer goods and transport sectors witnessed a robust upward rally in the week that featured market capitalisation momentarily surpass the QR500bn mark.

The Total Return Index gained 0.78% and Al Rayan Islamic Index 1.12% in the week that saw Doha Global Investment postpone its mammoth initial public offering, which was to have hit the market this month.

The QE Index has risen 6.68% YTD against Dubai’s stupendous 41.51% gain, Abu Dhabi (33.57%), Kuwait (33.16%), Muscat (10.69%), Bahrain (7.72%) and Saudi Arabia (5.09%).

About 67% of the stocks extended gains to investors with major movers being United Development Company (UDC), Woqod, Milaha, Ezdan Real Estate, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Widam Food, Al Meera, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services, Barwa, Ooredoo and Nakilat; even as Industries Qatar, Aamal Company and Ahlibank Qatar bucked the trend in the week that saw global credit rating agency Fitch affirm its ratings on seven Qatari lenders with “stable” outlook.

UDC was among the most active by both volume and value in the week that saw an Al Asmakh Real Estate report that said the residential market within Doha city appears to be stable and may see stable growth both in outright sales and rentals in the upcoming quarters.

The QE All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) gained 0.62% with the realty index surging 3.58%, consumer goods (3.17%), transport (3.05%), telecom (1.27%) and banks and financial services (0.19%), while that of insurance fell 0.5% and industrials (0.45%) in the week that featured rising rents, food and medical expenses lead Qatar’s cost of living, based on consumer price index (CPI), to rise 3.7% year-on-year (y-o-y) in April this year.

Industrials, consumer goods, telecom, transport, banking and insurance sectors were seen to outperform the key barometers with their indices gaining YTD 19.44%, 18.15%, 17.78%, 17.23%, 7.98% and 7.43% respectively. The real estate index gained 4.4%.

Of the 42 stocks; 28 advanced, while only 11 fell, one was unchanged and two were not traded in the week that saw the QE pledge support to Arab Federation of Exchanges in promoting joint initiatives the Arab bourses and financial institutions and thus contributing to support the region’s economies.

Six each of the 12 banks and financial institutions and the eight industrials; four each of the eight consumer goods and the four realty; three each of the five insurers and the three transport; and all of the two telecom stocks closed higher in the week that saw Beltone Financial view that Qatar’s inflation is not expected to “significantly” rise beyond the average of 3.8% in 2013, although there is a build up of pressures in the housing market.

Market capitalisation expanded 0.84% or more than QR4bn to QR498.07bn with mid, small and micro cap equities gaining 2.44%, 1.21% and 0.57% respectively, while large caps fell 0.16% in the week that saw an Al Asmakh report that said smaller companies in Qatar are moving towards “virtual office” concept due to the rising overhead rent costs.

Mid, small and large cap equities have gained YTD 8.09%, 7.09% and 6.48% respectively; while micro caps plunged 3.09%.

Qatari retail investors’ net profit booking soared to 8.91% or QR155.83mn. A lower 35.11% of them were into buying against 39.2% the week ended May 9 whereas a higher 44.02% into selling compared to 39.8%.

Domestic institutions’ net selling sunk to 5.76% or QR100.74mn. A much higher 27.65% of them were into buying against 19.2% the previous week and a higher 33.41% were into selling compared to 31.27%.

Foreign institutions’ net buying rose to 16.94% or QR296.26mn. A lower 26.85% of them bought equities against 30.20% the week ended May 9 but a much lower 9.91% of them offloaded compared to 15.85%.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking rose to 2.26% or QR39.53mn. A lower 10.39% of them purchased stocks against 11.39% the previous week and a marginally lower 12.65% sold compared to 13.08%.

Total trading volume was down 5% to 50.80mn shares, while value rose 1% to QR1.75bn and transactions by 2% to 22,673 in the week.

In terms of volume, the real estate stocks accounted for 29.74% of the total against 39.41% the previous week, banks and financial services 24.33% (24.31%), telecom 15.57% (6.63%), transport 15.31% (6.95%), industrials 8.35% (12.58%), consumer goods 5.79% (9.73%) and insurance 0.91% (0.38%).

The consumer goods sector witnessed a 43% plunge in trading volume to 2.94mn shares, industrials by 37% to 4.24mn, realty by 28% to 15.11mn and banks and financial services by 5% to 12.36mn; whereas that of insurance, telecom and transport more than doubled to 0.46mn, 7.91mn and 7.78mn respectively.

In terms of value, the banks and financial services stocks constituted 37.95% of the total compared to 35.03% a week ago, real estate 16.47% (23.44%), industrials 15.75% (19.1%), consumer goods 11.76% (12.98%), transport 10.34% (5.26%), telecom 6.43% (3.59%) and insurance 1.30% (0.6%).

The insurance sector stocks’ trading value more than doubled to QR22.70mn, transport’s soared 99% to QR180.81mn, telecom by 81% to QR112.50mn and banks and financial services by 10% to QR663.75mn; while that of the realty sector tanked 29% to QR288.06mn, industrials by 16% to QR275.45mn and consumer goods by 8% to QR205.62mn.

In terms of transactions, the banks and financial services sector’s share in total was 28.69% against 29.49% the previous week, real estate 21.67% (21.73%), industrials 16.87% (20.59%), consumer goods 11.46% (11.88%), transport 11.26% (9.6%), telecom 8.29% (5.79%) and insurance 1.75% (0.92%).

The insurance sector stocks transactions expanded 92% to 396; telecom by 45% to 1,880; transport by 19% to 2,554 and realty by 1% to 4,913; whereas those of industrials shrank 17% to 3,826; consumer goods by 2% to 2,598 and banks and financial services by 1% to 6,506.

In the debt market, a total of 20,000 treasury bills (TA58) valued at QR198.54mn changed hands across two transactions during the week.