Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Qatar Stock Exchange witnessed erosion of more than 300 points and about QR15bn in capitalisation, becoming the second worst performer among the Gulf bourses, mainly dragged by large and mid cap stocks during the week.
The market was seen flat for two of the four trading sessions but steep intra-week decline led the 20-stock Qatar Index shed a sizeable 2.46% to remain under the 12,200 level largely on domestic reasons during the week that saw Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC) sound cautious in this year's earnings owing to prevailing economic conditions on global price levels of the group’s key products and planned shutdowns.
In comparison, Dubai plunged 3.03%, Abu Dhabi (2.11%), Kuwait (0.94%), Bahrain (0.53%) and Muscat (0.5%); while Saudi Arabia gained 2.18% during the week.
Qatari bourse has so far (year-to-date) reported 1.19% decline against Saudi Arabia’s stupendous 14.2% gains, Muscat’s 2.89%, Bahrain’s 2.83%, Abu Dhabi’s 1.29% and Kuwait (0.055); while Dubai was down 0.7%.
Foreign institutions turned bearish to drag the Qatari bourse during the week that saw Doha Bank receive shareholders approval for the $2bn multi-tranche debt notes ‘bonds’, the first of which is expected to hit the market either by this month or early next.
Local retail investors and domestic institutions were seen brisk buyers, amidst an overall bearish overhang in the market, where real estate, banking and industrials stocks dominate the trading ring in terms of volumes during the week that featured global credit rating agency Standard and Poor's (S&P) say the global contagion of weaker crude may be 'underestimated' in the banking sector of certain oil exporting countries, particularly Qatar, due to the direct credit exposure to government and related entities.
Selling pressure was particularly witnessed in the realty, banks and consumer goods counters during the week that saw Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) open new headquarters in London for its subsidiary QIB-UK, whose focus is on supporting the investment and trade flows between the two countries.
Lower than expected dividends did pull down certain underlying stocks that led to an overall bearish overhang in the market, analysts said.
Real estate stocks plunged 1.73%, banks and financial services (1.71%), consumer goods (1.41%), telecom (0.89%), industrials (0.64%) and insurance (0.39%); while transport rose 1.06% during the week that saw S&P say falling oil prices are unlikely to spur Gulf's Islamic debt issue in 2015; even as no "meaningful" correlation between oil price swings and trends in GCC sovereign sukuk issuance could be ferreted out.
The 20-stock Total Return Index shed 1.32%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 1.17% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.27% during the week that featured Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s view that the Gulf economies are expected to grow slower this year and throw up twin deficits on flattish hydrocarbons and softer non-hydrocarbon sector.
Of the 43 stocks, only 15 gained, while 27 declined and one was unchanged. Seven each of the 12 banks and financial services and the nine industrials, five of the eight consumer goods, three of the five insurers, two each of the four real estate and the two telecom and one of the three transport stocks closed lower during the week.
Major losers included Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, QIB, Gulf International Services, MPHC and Ooredoo; even as Mannai Corporation, Commercial Bank, Nakilat, Salam International Investment and Milaha bucked the trend during the week.
Market capitalisation eroded 2.2% to QR660.51bn with large, mid, small and micro cap equities melting 2.88%, 1.19%, 1.06% and 0.47% respectively during the week.
Micro, mid and small cap scrips have, however, gained year-to-date 8.24%, 4.2% and 1.29% respectively; whereas large caps plummeted 4.49%.
Foreign institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR74.1mn against net buyers of QR82.48mn the previous week.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR5.35mn compared to QR7.95mn the week ended February 26.
However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the extent of QR23.83mn against net sellers of QR41.81mn the previous week.
Local retail investors also turned net buyers to the tune of QR55.61mn compared with net sellers of QR32.95mn the week ended February 26.
A total of 30.06mn shares valued at QR1.53bn changed hands across 19,102 transactions during the week.
The real estate sector saw a total of 7.88mn equities worth QR230.98mn change hands across 3,275 transactions and as many as 7.17mn banking stocks valued at QR494.04mn trade in 5,436 deals.
The industrials sector saw a total of 5.17mn shares worth QR422.15mn changed hands across 5,435 transactions and the telecom sector witnessed 4.76mn equities valued at QR105.73mn trade in 1,857 deals.
The market saw a total of 2.13mn consumer goods shares worth QR100.45mn change hands across 1,519 transactions.
The transport segment recorded 1.77mn shares valued at QR107.59mn trade in 934 deals and the insurance saw a total of 1.19mn equities worth QR66.83mn change hands across 646 transactions.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds during the week.