Foreign institutions’ substantially lower net buying largely drove the domestic bourse in the negative turf during the week which saw Commercial Bank's $750mn five-year debt oversubscribe 2.25 times, indicating the overwhelming response from global investors.
Led by insurance, banking and industrials sectors, the 20-stock Qatar Index fell 0.46% during the week which saw global credit rating agency Moody’s view that Qatar Petroleum is expected to show "robust" financial profile as its depth and quality of cash flows enable financial flexibility even in the case of low sustained oil price levels.
In comparison, Dubai bourse shrank 1.88%, Abu Dhabi (1.35%), Muscat (1.33%), Saudi Arabia (0.97%), Kuwait (0.29%) and Bahrain (0.24%) during the week which saw Moody’s find that as many as 20 largest single borrowers constitute more than 200% of Qatari banks' Tier I ratios but the high concentration risk is partly mitigated due to large exposure to low-risk government and related borrowers.
The Qatari bourse is down 6.11% year to-date vis-à-vis 8.14% plunge in Bahrain, 5.34% in Saudi Arabia and 3.92% in Kuwait; whereas Muscat, Dubai and Abu Dhabi gained 7.43%, 4.97% and 0.35% respectively.
Opening the week weak at 9,794 points on Sunday, the QSE weakened further to 9,704 points on Monday but only to witness sporadic buying interests for the remainder of the session but overall it lost 45 points during the week which saw Ooredoo’s $500mn bond oversubscribe more than six times.
The 20-stock Total Return Index fell 0.46%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.5% and Al Rayan Islamic Index 0.35% during the week which saw the overall trade turnover and volumes on the decline.
Insurance stocks shrank 1.34%, banks and financial services (0.75%), industrials (0.61%), real estate (0.35%), transport (0.16%) and consumer goods (0.03%); while telecom gained 1.61% during the week which featured a study by Global that Qatar's banking industry, whose profitability rose 1.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016 against a 0.7% fall in the Gulf Cooperation Council average, maintained the highest lending growth among the regional lenders.
Market capitalisation fell 0.52% or about QR3bn to QR529.08bn as small, large and midcap equities lost 0.71%, 0.55% and 0.35% respectively, while microcaps were up 0.1% during the week.
Large, mid, small and microcap stocks have fallen year-to-date 7.88%, 5.32%, 3.89% and 0.84% respectively.
Of the 44 stocks, as many 27 fell, while 13 appreciated and two were unchanged. Another one was not traded during the week which saw banking, industrials, telecom and realty stocks together constituted about 87% of the total trading volume.
Eight of the 13 banks and financial services; seven of the nine industrials; four of the eight consumer goods; three of the four real estate; two each of the five insurers and the three transport; and one of the two telecom stocks closed lower during the week which saw QNB complete the acquisition of 99.81% stake in Turkey’s Finansbank.
About 63% of the scrips were in the red with major losers being Dlala, Qatar First Bank, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, al khaliji, Industries Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services, Qatar Insurance, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar and Gulf Warehousing during the week.
However, Ooredoo, Commercial Bank, Alijarah Holding, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, United Development Company and Nakilat were seen bucking the trend during the week.
Foreign institutions’ net buying fell substantially to QR6.28mn compared to QR158.3mn the week ended June 9.
However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR13.43mn against net sellers of QR41.49mn the previous week.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking weakened perceptibly to QR13.25mn compared to QR90.42mn the week ended June 9.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling plunged to QR6.39mn against QR26.27mn the previous week.
Total trade volume fell 48% to 15.38mn shares, value by 47% to QR581.24mn and transactions by 40% to 8,524 during the week.
The consumer goods sector saw 67% plunge in trade volume to 0.69mn equities, 73% in value to QR25.64mn and 61% in deals to 659.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 60% to 2.75mn stocks, value by 53% to QR48.69mn and transactions by 41% to 1,014.
There was 58% shrinkage in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.33mn shares, 61% in value to QR21.31mn and 50% in deals to 285.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 55% to 2.05mn equities, value by 56% to QR38.86mn and transactions by 52% to 1,097.
The banks and financial services sector reported 48% decline in trade volume to 5.8mn stocks, 43% in value to QR305.84mn and 42% in deals to 2,546.
The industrials sector’s trade volume shrank 23% to 2.76mn shares, value by 39% to QR109.09mn and transactions by 19% to 2,315.
However, the market witnessed 1% increase in the transport sector’s trade volume to 0.99mn equities but on 22% fall in value to QR31.82mn and 25% in deals to 608.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds during the week.
