Weekly Market Report
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index declined by 51.12 points, or 0.41%, during the week, to close at 12,445.34. Market capitalisation fell by 0.33% to reach QR675.3bn compared to QR677.6bn at the end of the previous week. Of the 43 listed companies, 19 companies ended the week higher, while 23 fell and 1 remained unchanged. Qatari Investors Group (QIGD) was the best performing stock for the week, with a gain of 6.7% on 1.7mn shares traded. On the other hand, Qatar Cinema & Film Distribution Co (QCFS) was the worst performing stock with a decline of 12.4% on only 2,336 shares traded.
Trading value during the week decreased by 14.7% to reach QR2.3bn vs. QR2.7bn in the prior week. The banks and financial services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 32.3% of the total equity trading value. The Industrials sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 20.8% of the total. Vodafone Qatar was the top value traded stock with a value of QR233.8mn.
Trading volume decreased by 23.0% to reach 48.7mn shares vs. 63.3mn shares in the prior week. The number of transactions fell by 9.0% to reach 26,135 versus 28,704 in the prior week. The telecoms services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 27.4%, followed by the real estate sector (26.7%). VFQS was the top volume traded stock during the week with total traded volume of 13.2mn shares.
Foreign institutions remained bullish during the week with net buying of QR82.4mn vs net buying of QR28.8mn in the prior week. Qatari institutions remained bearish with net selling of QR41.8mn vs net selling of QR14.4mn the week before. Foreign retail investors turned bearish with net selling of QR8.0mn vs net buying of QR43.2mn in the prior week. Qatari retail investors remained bearish with net selling of QR32.9mn vs net selling of QR57.6mn the week before.
In 2015 year to date, foreign institutions sold (on a net basis) $5mn worth of Qatari equities.
During the week, QNBFS Research published an update report on Masraf Al Rayan (MARK). We now expect MARK’s loan book to grow by a CAGR of 11.3% in loans over 2014-18e. Furthermore, we expect MARK to post net income of QR2.2bn (up 10.0% year-on-year) in 2015. On the dividend per share (DPS) front, we expect the bank to pay cash DPS of QR2 (68.1% payout ratio) and QR2.25 (70.1% payout ratio) for 2015 and 2016, respectively. As for the valuation, MARK is trading at a P/E ratio of 16.6x and a P/B ratio of 3.0x on our 2015 estimates. The changes have resulted in a revised target price of QR49from QR46.00. However, we are maintaining our Market Perform recommendation on MARK.
