A substantially higher profit booking, especially by domestic institutions, led the Qatar Stock Exchange lose 144 points in its key index and QR1bn in capitalisation last week, which saw Masraf Al Rayan, Barwa Bank and International Bank of Qatar call off their three-way merger proposal.
Six of the seven sectors — particularly real estate, insurance and telecom — were under strong selling pressure this week which saw Nakilat enter into an agreement with Texas-based Excelerate Energy to establish a joint-venture entity and acquire a 55% stake in a floating storage regasification unit.
Robust buying interests of non-Qatari funds notwithstanding, the 20-stock Qatar Index shrank 1.56% this week which saw Mannai Corporation acquire an additional 15% stake in Gfi Informatique for €87mn.
About 57% of the traded constituents were in the red this week which saw a robust secondary sector performance help Qatar’s industrial production gain traction this April both on yearly and monthly basis.
The Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the conventional ones this week which saw higher expenses, particularly towards transportation, clothing and food, lead Qatar's cost of living, based on consumer price index rise 0.5% year-on-year this May.
The market witnessed a total volume of 0.06mn QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR1.26mn trade across 92 transactions and as many as 0.03mn QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR2.9mn change hands across 25 deals this week which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
The Total Return Index shed 1.56%, All Share Index 2.07% and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 1.1% this week which saw QNB, Nakilat and Qatar Islamic Bank dominate trading ring in volume and value.
The realty index plunged 3.72%, insurance (3.43%), telecom (3.19%), consumer goods (2.67%), banks and financial services (2.03% and industrials (1.79%), while transport gained 4.02% this week.
Major losers included Ooredoo, Woqod, Qatar Insurance, United Development Company, QNB, Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ezdan and Barwa; whereas Milaha, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Vodafone Qatar, Dlala, Doha Bank and Mannai Corporation were among the gainers this week which saw banking, telecom and transport sectors together accounted for about three-fourth of total trade volumes.
The banking and financial services sector accounted for 43% of the total trading volume, transport and telecom (16% each), industrials (12%), real estate (9%), and consumer goods and insurance (2% each) this week.
The banks and financial sector’s share in total trade turnover was 73%, industrials (13%), transport (4%), telecom and consumer goods (3% each), realty (2%) and insurance (1%) this week.
Domestic funds’ net selling strengthened considerably to QR995.53mn compared to QR202.48mn a week ago.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying grew substantially to QR1.29bn against QR705.15mn the previous week.
Non-Qatari individuals were net buyers to the tune of QR8.74mn compared with net sellers of QR61.36mn the week ended June 7.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking weakened significantly to QR303.78mn against QR441.07mn a week ago.
Although total trade volume was flat at 62.05mn shares, value grew 68% to QR3.97bn despite 10% lower transactions at 26,399.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 66% to 1.34mn equities, value by 66% to QR51.01mn and deals by 36% to 955.
The consumer goods sector reported 43% plunge in trade volume to 1.26mn stocks, 15% in value to QR128.13mn and 47% in transactions to 1,187.
The transport sector’s trade volume tanked 37% to 9.77mn shares, value by 32% to QR173.16mn and deals by 29% to 3,182.
The market witnessed 13% shrinkage in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 7.32mn equities but on 55% increase in value to QR508.12mn despite 9% lower transactions at 5,158.
The real estate sector’s trade volume was down 2% to 5.64mn stocks, whereas value grew 1% to QR79.98mn and deals by 8% to 2,257.
However, the banks and financial services sector saw 46% surge in trade volume to 26.52mn shares to more than double value to QR2.89bn on 8% jump in transactions to 11,605.
The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 26% to 10.19mn equities, while value shrank 7% to QR137.54mn and deals by 21% to 2,055.
