Islamic stocks were seen outperforming conventional ones this week in the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) which added a huge 235 points to its key index and more than QR10bn to capitalisation.
Strong buying interests of non-Qatari institutions were visible this week which saw Qatar Central Bank (QCB) find that for a 1% increase in interest rates, the banking sector's net interest income declined QR4.1bn at an aggregate level.
Industrials, telecom and real estate witnessed brisk demand, which led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 2.61% this week which saw Qatar report 1.4% year-on-year growth in the first quarter of this year with about 5% expansion in non-hydrocarbons mitigating the more than 2% decline in hydrocarbons.
The market witnessed a total volume of 75,988 QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR1.68mn trade across 120 transactions and as many as 3,194 QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR0.29mn change hands across nine deals this week which saw no trading of treasury bills.
The Total Return Index gained 2.61%, All Share Index 2.12% and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) 3.68% this week which saw QCB stress test find that a robust public sector deposit mobilisation more than made up for the withdrawal of non-resident deposits from the blockading countries, thus helping Qatar's domestic deposits grow at a faster pace during 2017.
The industrials index soared 3.73%, telecom (2.54%), realty (2.42%), banks and financial services (2.04%), consumer goods (0.66%) and transport (0.3%); while insurance declined 0.9% this week which saw Qatar's industrial producers' earnings grew double-digit in May 2018 on the back of robust prices, especially for crude, refined petroleum products, basic metals, dairy products and paper.
The weakened net selling by domestic funds also helped the market this week which saw Nakilat, Vodafone Qatar and Masraf Al Rayan dominate trading ring in volume and value.
About 76% of the stocks extended gains to investors this week which saw QCB forecast a busy year for the banking sector in 2018 due to an expected higher credit demand from both public and private sector.
Major gainers included Qatar First Bank, Medicare Group, Mazaya Qatar, Aamal Company and Vodafone Qatar; while Dlala, Mannai Corporation and Al Khaleej Takaful were among the losers this week which saw banking and telecom sectors together accounted for about 62% of total trade volumes.
The banking and financial services sector accounted for 32% of the total trading volume, telecom (30%), real estate (13%), industrials (10%), transport (9%), consumer goods (4%) and insurance (2%) this week which saw strong buying within micro, large and midcaps.
The banks and financial sector’s share in total trade turnover was 44%, industrials (15%), telecom (13%), consumer goods (10%), realty (8%), transport (7%) and insurance (3%) this week.
Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased significantly to QR126.82mn against QR14.31mn the previous week.
Domestic funds’ net profit booking weakened influentially to QR10.36mn compared to QR17.53mn the week ended June 28.
However, local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR103.92mn against net buyers of QR10.79mn a week ago.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking increased perceptibly to QR12.74mn compared to QR7.47mn the previous week.
Total trade volume grew 29% to 43.18mn shares, while value was down less than 1% to QR1.04bn despite 20% higher transactions at 16,359.
The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 59% to 12.93mn equities, value by 25% to QR135.72mn and deals by 21% to 1,833.
The banks and financial services sector saw 55% surge in trade volume to 13.82mn stocks, 13% in value to QR459.63mn and 15% in transactions to 5,512.
The industrials sector’s trade volume shot up 48% to 4.31mn shares, value by 33% to QR152.24mn and deals by 53% to 3,219.
The consumer goods sector reported 38% increase in trade volume to 1.89mn equities but on 35% decline in value to QR100.64mn despite 11% higher transactions at 1,326.
The real estate sector’s trade volume expanded 19% to 5.7mn stocks, value by 13% to QR85.64mn and deals by 15% to 2,357.
However, there was 55% plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.79mn shares, 56% in value to QR26.66mn and 21% in transactions to 796.
The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 33% to 3.75mn equities and value by 34% to QR75.58mn, while deals grew 38% to 1,316.
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