Santhosh V. Perumal

Foreign funds’ strong buying interests led the Qatar Stock Exchange make huge gains of 373 points to surpass the pre-blockade levels by a wide margin last week.

A day after making huge gains, the Qatar Stock Exchange on Thursday remained flat despite weakened selling pressure from domestic institutions and local retail investors.

Robust buying – especially in realty, insurance and banking – led the 20-stock Qatar Index gain for the fourth straight session by a huge 1.54% or 151 points to 9,976.51 points.

Foreign institutions’ sustained buying interests on Tuesday lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange for the third straight session and its key index settled above 9,800 levels.

The Qatar Stock Exchange on Monday continued its bullish run for the second day, mainly on the back of strong buying interests of foreign institutions.

The Qatar Stock Exchange on Sunday opened the week on a stronger note mainly on the back of bullish outlook of local retail investors.

Foreign funds’ strong buying were mainly instrumental in the Qatar Stock Exchange settle above 9,600 levels this week which saw global credit rating agency Capital Intelligence affirm Qatar’s long term foreign and local currency ratings at ‘AA-’ and the corresponding short term ratings at ‘A1+’.

Qatar's hospitality market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.1% to $1.4bn by 2022, an Alpen Capital study has said.