Business Reporter
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| Qatar’s 20-stock benchmark rose by a robust 2.15% to 8,949.76 points in the week |
Strong buying, especially in large and mid cap equities, lifted the 20-stock benchmark by a robust 2.15% or 189 points to 8,949.76 points in the week that saw the central bank justifying its stand by highlighting the higher risks from conventional lenders operating Islamic financing as there would be difficulties in financial reporting. QE was the second best performer among the Gulf bourses.
The bourses of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Muscat rose 2.48%, 1.75%, 1.51%, 1.10% and 0.85% respectively, while that of Kuwait fell 0.53% in the week that featured Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) expressing interests on buying the Islamic units of conventional banks.
Slower selling by the foreign institutions rather supported the bullish momentum in the QE, which is up 3.09% year-to-date (YTD).
Bahrain and Muscat bourses extended YTD gains of 2.47% and 2.37%; while those of Kuwait, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia fell 3.11%, 1.97%, 0.34% and 0.14% respectively.
Major gainers in the QE were Masraf Al Rayan, QIB, International Islamic, Commercialbank, Doha Bank, Salam International Investments, Qatar Navigation, Woqod and Nakilat in the week that saw a top banker say that the stoppage of Islamic financing could hit conventional banks but not the project financing in the country as the banks were “over capitalised”.
Insurance index gained the maximum of 2.70%, banks and financial institutions (2.49%), services (2.06%) and industry (1%) in the week that witnessed International Bank of Qatar (IBQ) say that the merger of al khaliji is expected to be completed by this year.
Stocks of insurance, lenders, industry and services have delivered positive YTD gains of 9.46%, 4.20%, 3.74% and 0.45% respectively.
Of the 43 stocks; 29 rose, while 12 fell and one was unchanged. Another one was not traded in the review week that saw IBQ managing director George Nasra say that conventional banks may have to hive off their Islamic units.
Six each of the nine lenders and seven industries, three of the five insurers and 14 of the 23 services closed higher in the review week that saw the listed insurance companies reporting a 7% growth in their cumulative net profit to QR889mn in 2010.
Market capitalisation gained 0.43% or about QR2bn to QR443.24bn with mid, large and small cap equities adding 3.14%, 1.17% and 1.06% respectively.
Mid and micro cap equities have gained YTD 2.71% and 1.24%; while large and small caps have lost 7.08% and 0.43% respectively.
Foreign institutions turned bullish that they were net buyers to the tune of 6.40% against net sellers of 11.81% in the previous week.
A lower 22.68% of them bought stocks compared with 29.92% in the week ended February 3 and a much lower 16.28% offloaded against 41.73%.
Domestic institutions, on the other hand, turned profit takers as they were net sellers to the extent of 0.40% compared with net buyers of 5.85% in the previous week.
A marginally higher 22.91% of them were into buying compared with 21.44% in the week ended February 3 and a higher 23.31% into selling against 15.59%.
Qatari retail investors turned bearish that they were net sellers to the tune of 5.49% compared with net buyers of 5.69% in the previous week.
A higher 42% of them purchased equities compared to 37.76% in the week ended February 3 and a much higher 47.49% sold against 32.07%.
Non-Qatari individual investors also turned profit takers that they were net sellers to the tune of 0.50% compared with net buyers of 0.28% in the previous week.
A higher 12.42% of them were into buying compared with 10.89% in the week ended February 3 and a higher 12.92% were into selling against 10.61%.
The bourse’s price-earning ratio, a measure of expensiveness, was 11.82 times as on February 10 compared with 11.58 times in the comparable period in the previous year.
The price-to-book value was 1.99 times at the end of second week of February against 2.03 in the year-ago period.
Total trading volume rose 12% to 82.08mn shares, value by 1% to QR2.94bn and transactions by 28% to 38,646.
Banks and financial institution dominated the trading ring as their shares accounted for 57.65%, 66.67% and 57.35% of total volume, value and transactions respectively (against 46.40%, 47.24% and 39.65% in the previous week).
Services’ share was 35.83% (42.99%), industry 5.43% (9.36%) and insurance 1.08% (1.26%).
Banks and financial institution saw their trading volume surge 39% to 47.32mn shares; while that of industry fell 35% to 4.46mn, services by 7% to 29.41mn and insurance by 3% to 0.89mn.
In terms of value, services cornered 24.49% of total trading value (compared to 29.66% a week ago), industry 7.14% (21.38%) and insurance 1.70% (1.72%).
Trading value of lenders’ equities surged 43% to QR1.96bn whereas that of industry plunged 66% to QR210.57mn, services by 16% to QR716.71mn and insurance by 1% to QR49.75mn.
Masraf Al Rayan accounted for 23.58% of total trading value, followed by QIB (12.81%) and International Islamic (10.14%).
Services accounted for 31.84% of total transactions (against 40.67% in the previous week), industry 8.90% (17.10%) and insurance 1.91% (2.58%).
Deals within lenders gained 85% to 22,164 and services by less than 1% to 12,304; whereas those within industry fell 33% to 3,440 and insurance by 5% to 738.