Mid, large caps lift index above 9,000 level

By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

An across-the-board buying, notably in the low volume insurance stocks, helped the 20-stock benchmark index gain a whopping 3.89% or 338 points to 9,019.26 points in the week that featured Qatar Financial Market Authority effecting key amendments to the trading time and tick size.

Woqod, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar Insurance, Qatar Navigation, Qatar Electricity and Water, Gulf Warehousing and Barwa were among the prime gainers during the week.

"Overall, oil prices appear to be attractive despite minor corrections. That should lend support. The impending fourth quarter (hence full year) corporate results should also play their part,” an analyst working with a bank told Gulf Times.

The results are expected to be solid given the fact that oil prices had been strong and that financial institutions, especially banks, had seen robust pace in lending, apart from a strong outlook on domestic economy, according to him.

Insurance stocks gained the maximum of 7.78%, followed by banks and financial institutions (4.28%), services (3.23%) and industry (3.19%) in the week that saw Qatar Telecom subsidiary Wataniya raising its stake in Tunisiana to 75%.

Of the 43 stocks, 24 rose, while 13 fell and three were unchanged. Three others were not traded in the review week. Six of the nine lenders, three of the five insurers, four of the seven industries and 11 of the 23 services closed higher.

Total trading volume fell 17% to 50.28mn shares, value by 5% to QR2.23bn and transactions by 7% to 25,964.

The services sector dominated the trading ring as its stocks accounted for 59.63%, 49.33% and 51.88% of the total trading volume, value and deals respectively.

In volume, banks and financial institutions’ share was 29.22%, followed by industry (9.49%) and insurance (1.67%).

The industrial sector saw its trading volume plummet 29% to 4.77mn shares, services by 17% to 29.98mn and lenders by 14% to 14.69mn; while insurance saw a 71% gain to 0.84mn.

In value, banks and financial institutions cornered a 32.74% share, followed by industry (15.25%) and insurance (2.69%).

Trading value of industries plunged 35% to QR339.18mn, whereas insurance surged 83% to QR57.62mn and lenders rose 4% to QR731.74mn but services was unchanged at QR1.10bn.

Barwa accounted for 18.66% of total trading value, followed by Industries Qatar (11.27%) and National Leasing (8.37%).

Banks and financial institutions accounted for 30.18% of total transactions, followed by industry (14.39%) and insurance (3.55%).

Deals within industry fell 18% to 3,736; lenders by 8% to 7,837 and services by 7% to 13,470; while those within insurance more than doubled to 921.