By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter
The Qatar Exchange settled below the 8,800 mark, making it the third worst performer in the Gulf during the week
Rising political tensions in
Severe selling was seen especially in large and mid cap equities as the 20-stock benchmark dropped a sizeable 2.37% or 213 points to 8,761.20 points in the review week that saw QNB announcing that it was hiking its capital by 25% through a rights issue.
The bourses of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dubai, Muscat and Abu Dhabi fell 2.75%, 2.44%, 2.05%, 1.96%, 1.22% and 0.53% respectively in the week that featured QE outlining before global investments in London and Paris that it will soon link up with NYSE Euronext’s secured financial transaction infrastructure, enabling investors to reach across the US, European and Asian markets.
Banking and services stocks were briskly offloaded in the QE, which is however up 0.92% year-to-date (YTD).
“The Gulf markets were largely swayed by the rising geopolitical tensions, which made foreign institutions to tread a cautious path. There was a knee-jerk wild fluctuation on Sunday but it was the dividend blues that hit QNB had resulted in bearish sentiments to prevail in the
A recent report by Kuwait-based Kamco had said $49bn has been wiped off the value of shares on Arab stock markets since anti-government protests in
Among the major losers in the QE were QNB, al khaliji, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Commercialbank (Cb), United Development Company, Nakilat and Barwa in the week that saw the Qatar Financial Market Authority allowing HSBC, QNB and Standard Chartered to offer custody services at the Qatar’s bourse from February 1, a move that will enhance confidence among international investors.
Banks and financial institution witnessed the maximum selling as its group index plummeted 3.19%, services (2.46%) and industry (0.15%); while the insurance index surged 3.61% in the week that saw QNB disclosing that it has received regulatory approvals to acquire a 49% stake in
Stocks of insurance, industry and lenders have delivered positive YTD gains of 6.59%, 2.71% and 1.67% respectively, while those of services fell 1.58%.
Of the 43 stocks; only 12 rose, while 30 fell and one was not traded in the review week that saw the Qatar’s bourse’s 60-minute extended trading session and the new three-Tier tick structure coming into force.
Six of the nine lenders, three of the five insurers, four of the seven industries and 17 of the 23 services closed lower in the review week.
Market capitalisation plunged 1.48% or about QR7bn to QR441.33bn with large, mid and micro cap equities dropping 6.54%, 3.05% and 1.17% respectively.
Large, small and mid caps have returned YTD losses of 8.15%, 1.47% and 0.42% respectively, even as micro caps gained 0.94%.
Foreign institutions were profit takers that they were net sellers to the tune of 11.81% against net buyers of 2.73% in the previous week.
Although a higher 29.92% of them bought stocks compared with 26.49% in the week ended January 27, a much higher 41.73% offloaded against 29.22%.
Domestic institutions were however increasingly bullish as their net buying surged to 5.85% from 2.28% in the previous week.
A marginally lower 21.44% of them were into buying compared with 22.03% in the week ended January 27 and a lower 15.59% into selling against 19.75%.
Qatari retail investors turned bullish that they were net buyers to the extent of 5.69% compared with net sellers of 2.61% in the previous week.
A marginally lower 37.76% of them purchased equities compared to 38.04% in the week ended January 27 and a lower 32.07% sold against 40.65%.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ bullish grip considerably weakened as their net selling sunk to 0.28% from 3.06% in the previous week.
A lower 10.89% of them were into buying compared with 13.44% in the week ended January 27, while a marginally higher 10.61% were into selling against 10.38%.
The bourse’s price-earning ratio, a measure of expensiveness, was 11.80 times as on February 3 compared with 11.45 times in the comparable period in the previous year.
The price-to-book value was 1.99 times at the end of first week of February against 2.01 in the year-ago period.
Total trading volume rose 32% to 73.30mn shares, value by 48% to QR2.9bn and transactions by 31% to 30,203.
Banks and financial institution dominated the trading in terms of volume and value while services did so in transactions.
Lenders’ share was 46.40% (49.58% in the previous week), services 42.99% (41.33%), industry 9.36% (7.96%) and insurance 1.26% (1.13%).
Industries saw their trading volume surge 55% to 6.86mn shares, banks and financial institution by 48% to 34.01mn, insurance by 46% to 0.92mn and services by 14% to 31.51mn.
Lenders cornered 47.24% of share trading value (44.90% a week ago), services 29.66% (35.20%), industry 21.38% (18.37%) and insurance 1.72% (1.53%).
Trading value of insurance equities shot up 85% to QR50.49mn, industry by 72% to QR616.24mn, banks and financial institution by 56% to QR1.37bn and services by 25% to QR857.44mn.
Industries
Services accounted for 40.67% of total transactions (42.45% in the previous week), banks and financial institution 39.65% (38.42%), industry 17.10% (16.5%) and insurance 2.58% (2.62%).
Deals within lenders gained 36% to 11,975; industry by 35% to 5,165; insurance by 29% to 780 and services by 25% to 12,283.