By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Bears continued to have their say in the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), which settled 113 points lower during the week.
Selling pressure was seen intense in the transport, real estate, telecom and industrials counters during the week which saw Qatar Central Securities Depository announce that citizens of Gulf Cooperation Council will be treated as locals in terms of ownership in the listed companies in the QSE.
Lower buying support from local retail investors was largely seen responsible for an about 1% decline in the 20-stock Qatar Index during the week that witnessed Milaha launch its first direct container service between Qatar and India, a move that would considerably reduce transit time and costs.
The market treaded a flat course in the first two days but only to see huge gains on Tuesday to inch near the 11,700 mark. However, subsequent profit booking pressures drove the index down further and overall the index settled lower at 11,411 points during the week that saw Mannai Corporation sound optimistic on business prospects this year and beyond despite a lull in the global energy front.
Kuwait had plunged 3.31%, Saudi Arabia (2.95%), Dubai (1.91%), Muscat (1.72%) and Bahrain (1%); even as Abu Dhabi gained 0.82% during the week that featured the country's producer price index plunged 41.4% year-on-year in January 2015.
Qatari bourse has so far (year-to-date) reported 7.12% decline against Dubai’s 9.72% fall, Kuwait’s 4.79%, Muscat’s 3.63% and Abu Dhabi’s 3.44%; whereas Saudi Arabia and Bahrain reported 6.84% and 1.26% gains respectively.
Crude witnessed a volatile scenario as on Thursday it began ascending on concerns that fighting in the Arabian Peninsula between Saudi Arabia and Houthi rebels in Yemen could disrupt supplies.
The Qatari bourse’s overall bearish overhang came amidst weakened net selling pressure from foreign institutions during the week which saw Ezdan Holding announce that it is open to more mega investments this year.
Small and large cap stocks witnessed the maximum selling pressure during the week that witnessed banking, real estate and industrials stocks account for more than 76% of total trading volume.
The 20-stock Total Return Index shed 0.46%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.7% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.88% during the week that saw about 62% of the stocks being in the red.
Transport stocks plunged 2.31%, realty (2.15%), telecom (1.31%), industrials (1.17%) and consumer goods (0.44%); while insurance gained 1.18% and banks and financial services by 0.18% during the week.
Of the 43 stocks, only 15 gained, while 26 declined and one was unchanged. Another one was not traded. Six each of the 12 banks and financial services and the nine industrials, four each of the eight consumer goods and the four real estate, three of the five insurers, two of the three transport and one of the two telecom stocks close lower during the week.
Major losers included Industries Qatar, Commercial Bank, Dlala, Islamic Holding Group, Mannai Corporation, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Barwa, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Company, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Milaha and Salam International Investment during the week.
However, Qatar Islamic Bank, Al Meera, Qatar Electricity and Water, Gulf International Services and Vodafone Qatar were seen bucking the trend during the week that saw Barwa and Commercial Bank dominate the trading ring both in terms of volume and value.
Market capitalisation eroded 1.12% or more than QR7bn to QR617.47bn with small, large, micro and mid cap equities melting 1.28%, 0.93%, 0.68% and 0.52% respectively during the week.
Large, small and mid cap scrips were seen losing value 9.96%, 4.35% and 2.36% respectively year-to-date; even as micro caps were up 0.14%.
Local retail investors’ net buying plummeted to QR7.73mn compared to QR126.04mn the previous week.
Domestic institutions’ net buying fell to QR92.75mn against QR96.56mn the week ended March 19.
Foreign institutions’ net selling sunk to QR132.11mn compared to QR215.18mn the previous week.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR31.81mn against net profit takers of QR7.41mn the week ended March 19.
A total of 38.71mn shares valued at QR1.8bn changed hands across 25,052 transactions during the week.
The real estate sector saw a total of 11.51mn equities worth QR310.95mn change hands across 4,224 transactions and as many as 12.13mn banking stocks valued at QR705.29mn trade in 7,024 deals.
The industrials sector saw a total of 5.9mn shares worth QR460.23mn changed hands across 7,313 transactions and the telecom sector witnessed 5.36mn equities valued at QR133.33mn trade in 3,773 deals.
The market saw a total of 1.71mn consumer goods shares worth QR86.92mn change hands across 1,661transactions.
The transport segment recorded 1.44mn shares valued at QR51.71mn trade in 733 deals and the insurance saw a total of 0.66mn equities worth QR49.01mn change hands across 324 transactions.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds during the week.
