Foreign institutions were increasingly bullish, which led the QSE gain 1.41% to break the 10,000 mark during the week which saw finance minister HE Ali Shareef al-Emadi disclose that Qatar plans to invest up to QR46bn in major infrastructure projects next year, a move that would instill confidence in the private sector.
Dubai was the biggest gainer at 5.88%, Abu Dhabi (4.84%), Muscat (1.38%), Bahrain (1.21%), Kuwait (0.36%) and Saudi Arabia (0.34%) during the week which featured a report from Kamco that said Qatar's near term economic growth is expected to peak to 3.4% in 2017.
QSE, however, saw its year-to-date losses at 3.6% compared to 1.97% in Bahrain and 0.46% in Kuwait; whereas Dubai soared 12.94%, Abu Dhabi (4.87%), Muscat (4.83%) and Saudi Arabia (2.98%).
An across the board buying – particularly in the telecom and realty sectors – rather lifted the sentiments in the QSE during the week which saw local regulatory authorities approve Anadolu Endüstri Holding exercise put option on Alternatifbank, enabling Commercial Bank to make the Turkish lender its fully-owned subsidiary compared to its present 75% holding.
Islamic stocks rose faster than the conventional scrips during the week which saw Barwa Real Estate Company acquire another 10% stake in Bahrain-based Nuzul Holding Company, thus enhancing its effective total holding to 39%.
Microcap equities were seen outperforming the main index during the week which however saw Qatar’s foreign trade surplus more than halve year-on-year to QR63.54bn in the third quarter of this year.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the decline during the week which saw telecom, real estate and banking sectors together constituted about three-fourth of the total volumes.
In volumes, telecom sector constituted 36% of the total, followed by banks and financial services and realty (19% each), industry (10%), insurance (7%), consumer goods (5%) and transport (4%) during the week which saw Vodafone Qatar, Qatari Investors Group and Barwa dominate the trading ring in volumes and value.
In value, banks and financial services’ share was 26%, followed by industry (19%), telecom (15%), insurance (14%), real estate (13%), consumer goods (8%) and transport (5%) during the week.
Opening the week strong at 10,010 points, the market was however on losing path on the subsequent day to touch a low of 9,932 points. Although there was buying interests for the next two days it was not strong enough to break 10,000 levels. The market got the much needed ammunition on the last day, which led the index overall gain 140 points and stand above the 10,000 mark for the second time.
The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 1.41%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 1.22% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.93% during the week, which saw insurance register faster expansion in trade volumes and value.
Telecom sector saw its index vault 4.85%, realty (2.6%), insurance (1.11%), consumer goods (1.06%), banks and financial services (0.73%), transport (0.72%) and industrials (0.47%) during the week which saw global credit rating agency Moody’s view that the operating environment for the Gulf banks remain challenging but will benefit from oil price stabilisation and that profitability will remain sound, although likely to decline slightly as a result of slowing credit growth.
Market capitalisation expanded more than QR6bn or 1.17% to QR540.14bn with micro, large, small and midcap equities gaining 1.5%, 1.27%, 1.17% and 0.29% respectively during the week.
Small, mid, micro and large cap stocks have nevertheless reported year-to-date losses of 14.1%, 8.51%, 6.13% and 1.58% respectively.
Of the 44 stocks, as many as 31 gained, while only nine fell, three were unchanged and one was not traded. Nine of the 13 banks and financial services, seven of the nine consumer goods, four each of the eight industrials and the four realty, three of the five insurers and two each of the three transport and the two telecom stocks settled higher during the week.
More than 72% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Barwa, Qatar Insurance, Aamal Company, Gulf Warehousing, Islamic Holding Group, Al Meera and Nakilat during the week.
Nevertheless, Qatar General and Reinsurance, Doha Insurance, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services, Qatar National Cement, Commercial Bank, al khaliji and Milaha were among the losers during the week.
Foreign institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR162.07mn compared to QR3.9mn the week ended December 1.
However, local retail investors’ net profit booking strengthened considerably to QR161.42mn against QR22.62mn the previous week.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying weakened perceptibly to QR9.24mn compared to QR21.12mn the week ended December 1.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking increased to QR9.89mn against QR2.4mn the previous week.
Total trade volume fell 29% to 46.57mn shares, value by 13% to QR1.3bn and transactions by 3% to 16,042 during the week.
There was a 55% plunge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 16.84mn equities, 47% in value to QR200.37mn and 53% in deals to 2,331.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume plummeted 27% to 8.94mn stocks and value by 31% to QR340.88mn, while transactions were up 5% to 4,424.
The industrials sector reported 17% shrinkage in trade volume to 4.64mn shares and 17% in value to QR243.64mn but on 17% increase in deals to 2,985.
The transport sector’s trade volume tanked 10% to 1.9mn equities and value by 5% to QR62.16mn, whereas transactions gained 29% to 1,204.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than five-fold to 3.11mn stocks and value more than quadrupled to QR178.54mn on mere 2% jump in deals to 494.
The market witnessed 73% surge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 8.98mn shares, 70% in value to QR174.29mn and 93% in transactions to 3,031.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was up less than 1% to 2.16mn equities, while value shrank 18% to QR101.87mn and deals by 16% to 1,573.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds during the week.
