The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Index gained 64.24 points, or 0.7%, during the trading week to close at 9,200.10. Market capitalisation increased by 0.5% to QR504.7bn versus QR502.2bn at the end of the previous trading week. Of the 45 listed companies, 15 companies ended the week higher, while 30 declined and none remained unchanged. Widam Foods (WDAM) was the best performing stock for the week with a gain of 9.07% on 545.3k shares traded. On the other hand, Qatar Insurance Company (QATI) was the worst performing stock for the week with a decline of 8.25% on 433.4k shares traded.
QNB Group (QNBK), Industries Qatar (IQCD) and Ooredoo (ORDS) were the primary contributors to the weekly index gains. QNBK was the biggest contributor to the index’s weekly increase, adding 50.0 points to the index. IQCD was the second biggest contributor to the mentioned gains, adding 49.4 points to the index. Moreover, ORDS added 21.3 points to the index. However, Masraf Al Rayan (MARK) shed 34.0 points off the index.
Trading value during the week increased by 1.52% to reach QR1.55bn versus QR1.52bn in the prior week. The banks and financial services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 46.1% of the total trading value. The industrials sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 20.2 % of the total trading value. QNBK was the top value traded stock during the week with total traded value of QR183.3mn.
Trading volume increased by 14.67% to reach 71.8mn shares versus 62.6mn in the prior week. The number of transactions fell by 6.38% to reach 24,058 versus 25,698 transactions in the prior week. The banks and financial services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 46.3%, followed by the Industrials sector which accounted for 23.4% of the overall trading volume. Qatar First Bank (QFBQ) was the top volume traded stock during the week with 19.6mn shares.
Foreign institutions remained bullish with net buying of QR36.1mn versus net buying of QR144.2mn in the prior week. Qatari institutions turned bullish with net buying of QR48.2mn versus net selling of QR58.9mn in the week before. Foreign retail investors remained bearish with net selling of QR28.4mn versus net selling of QR9.0mn in the prior week. Qatari retail investors remained bearish with net selling of QR55.9mn versus net selling of QR76.1mn the week before.
Foreign institutions bought (on a net basis) $51mn worth of Qatari equities since the beginning of 2018.
