Wasata Financial Services was seen considerably gaining foothold in stock trading; even as The Group Securities, QNB Financial Services (QNBFS) and Commercial Bank Financial Services together constituted about 82% share trade turnover of the brokerages in the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) during the first three months of this year.

Wasata Financial Securities and the QNBFS, which offer both market making and liquidity provisioning services, saw their share of trade turnover improve year-on-year during January-March 2024, according to the Qatar Stock Exchange data.

The Group Securities’ share stood at 33.47% in January-March 2024 compared to 36.28% the previous year period. Its trading turnover was down 0.09% year-on-year to QR21.43bn. The transactions through it however rose 2.6% on an annualised basis to 0.74mn but on 6.18% lower volumes to 9.11mn shares at the end of March 31, 2024.

The QNB subsidiary QNBFS' trade turnover amounted to QR23.66bn, which constituted 36.95% of the total traded value during January-March 2024 against 34.97% a year-ago period. The turnover shot up 14.47% year-on-year, volumes by 52% to 6.08mn equities and transactions by 3.84% to 0.77mn in the review period.

The Commercial Bank Financial Services accounted for 11.13% of trade turnover compared to 11.86% during January-March 2023. The brokerage house's trade turnover was up 1.71% year-on-year to QR7.13bn and volumes by 32.52% to 2.16mn stocks, whereas deals shrank 9.43% to 0.23mn in the review period.

The Commercial Bank’s subsidiary was the first bank brokerage in the country to launch margin trading product. The bourse recently amended the list of securities eligible for market making, liquidity provision, margin trading, and covered short‐selling activities; making more companies eligible.

The approved market makers in the local bourse are The Group Securities, QNBFS and Wasata Financial Services. The approved liquidity providers are The Group Securities, QNBFS, CBFS and Wasata Financial Services.

Wasata Financial Securities' share was 8.71% of trading turnover during January-March 2024 compared to 2.88% in the comparable period of 2023. Its trade turnover zoomed 228.24% year-on-year to QR5.58bn, volumes by 238.1% to 2.13mn shares and deals by 282.48% to 0.19mn at the end of March 2024.

Qatar Securities accounted for 5.77% of trade turnover during the first three months of 2024 compared to 8.41 the previous year period. The brokerage's trading turnover dipped 25.55% year-on-year to QR3.7bn, volumes by 20.83% to 0.76mn equities and transactions by 23.17% to 0.1mn at the end of March 2024.

Dlala Brokerage, a stock broking business arm of Dlala Holding, accounted for 3.33% of trade turnover against 3.56% the year-ago period. The brokerage’s trading turnover was QR2.13bn, which rose 0.95% year-on-year during January-March 2024. The deals through it shot up 7.55% on a yearly basis to 0.06mn but volumes tanked 10.67% to 0.67mn stocks at the end of March 2024.

Al-Ahli Brokerage, a subsidiary of Ahlibank Qatar, saw its trade turnover plunge 66.67% on an annualised basis to QR0.4bn, cornering a market share of 0.63% during January-March of 2024 compared to 2.03% a year ago period. The volumes handled by the banking subsidiary plummeted 47.83% to 0.12mn shares and deals through it by 58.65% to 0.01mn during the review period.