By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
Strengthened global oil prices and Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) stance on soft interest rate regime have helped the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) add a robust 302 points to its key index during the week.
Foreign institutions’ increased net buying, amid lower exposure, was visible in the market during the week that saw QSE announce new mechanism by which shareholders in the listed companies have been given an option to sell their rights in the proposed rights issue, which otherwise was nonexistent.
Heavy demand was seen, especially in the large cap equities, which outperformed the basic benchmark during the week, which saw the central bank say that Qatar's banks are well capitalised; indicating financial soundness of the sector in line with the growth objectives of the country.
An across the board buying – notably in the real estate and insurance counters – led the 20-stock Qatar Index surge 2.63% during the week that saw QNB report 9% jump in its nine-month net profit to QR8.7bn.
Saudi Arabia rose 4.68%, Dubai (2.4%), Muscat (1.32%) and Abu Dhabi (0.59%); while Bahrain and Kuwait fell 1.69% and 0.21% respectively during the week.
QSE has fallen 4.32% year-to-date against Kuwait’s decline of 12.65%, Bahrain’s 12.05%, Saudi Arabia’s 7.78%, Muscat’s 7.5% and Dubai’s 1.79%; whereas Abu Dhabi was up 0.39%.
However, local retail investors turned bearish and there was increased net selling pressure from their non-Qatari counterparts in the QSE during the week.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices during the week, which saw Qatar's cost of living, based on consumer price index, rise 1.1% year-on-year in the second quarter of this year mainly on higher rents and costlier utilities, education, tobacco and transport.
The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 2.63% and All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 2.41% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 2.95% during the week that witnessed official figures suggest that Qatar's foreign trade surplus more than halved to QR43.26bn in Q2 2015 but fast growing Asia was, by far, the largest contributor with the region accounting for 98.4% of the total.
Opening the week strong at 11,514 points, the market witnessed sustained buying interests for the next three days, thus taking the index to a high of 11,789 points but failed to surpass the 11,800 levels on the last day and thus settled at 11,755 points.
Realty stock appreciated 5.41%, insurance (3.16%), industrials (2.5%), telecom (2.14%), banks and financial services (1.39%), transport (1.23%) and consumer goods (0.72%) during the week saw Commercial Bank acquire another 0.75% stake in Turkey’s Alternatifbank, thus taking its total holding to 75%, through a ‘squeeze out’ process.
Of the 43 stocks, as many as 32 gained, while only 10 fell and one was not traded during the week that saw real estate, banking, industrials and telecom sectors together constitute about 83% of the overall trading volume.
10 of the 12 banks and financial services, eight of the nine industrials, four each of the five insurers and the four realty, three of the eight consumer goods, all of the two telecom and one of the three transport sector equities closed higher during the week.
More than 76% of the stocks extended gains with major gainers being Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Industries Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Dlala, Barwa, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Ooredoo and Nakilat; even as Milaha, Gulf Warehousing, Islamic Holding Group and Mannai Corporation bucked the trend during the week that also saw Ezdan and Barwa dominate the trading ring in terms of both volume and value.
Market capitalisation shot up 2.19% or more than QR13bn to QR616.48bn with small, mid, large and micro cap equities gaining 2.86%, 1.93%, 1.79% and 1.03% respectively during the week.
Large, micro and mid cap stocks have, however, reported year-to-date declines of 11.84%. 4.07% and 1.18% respectively; while small caps gained 6.95%.
Foreign institutions’ net buying considerably strengthened to QR89.01mn compared to QR37.02mn the previous week.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking marginally weakened to QR35.49mn against QR38.64mn the week ended October 1.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR8.87mn compared with net buyers of QR8.06mn the previous week.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ net selling substantially increased to QR44.64mn against QR6.45mn the week ended October 1.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 40.39mn shares, value grew 75% to QR1.41bn and transactions by 86% to 21,701 during the week.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 16.23mn equities and value almost quadrupled to QR372.34mn on almost tripled deals to 4,534.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 3.72mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR124.32mn on more than tripled transactions to 1,927.
The telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 5.13mn shares, value soared 44% to QR100.81mn and deals by 31% to 2,070.
The industrials sector saw 85% surge in trade volume to 5.91mn equities, 50% in value to QR351.27mn and 76% in transactions to 6,126.
The transport sector’s trade volume soared 78% to 2.98mn stocks, value by 85% to QR86.52mn and deals by 25% to 1,588.
The banks and financial services sector reported 58% expansion in trade volume to 6.16mn shares, 25% in value to QR354.87mn and 78% in transactions to 5,182.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 31% to 0.25mn equities, value by 46% to QR18.23mn and deals by 1% to 274.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills, while as many as 22,000 government bonds valued at QR220.27mn changed hands across three transactions during the week.
