By Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter
Apprehensions over possible recession in the US and Europe made global stock markets, including the Qatar Exchange (QE), nervous during the week that saw gold snatch all glitter.Foreign institutions were seen mainly instrumental in dragging the QE by 0.24% in the week vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia’s fall of 1.79%, Kuwait (0.71%), Dubai (0.23%) and Bahrain (0.02%); even as Muscat and Abu Dhabi gained 1.04% and 0.27%, respectively.Selling pressure, particularly at the industrial counter, led to the 20-stock benchmark lose 19 points to 8,171.48 points in the review week that saw an Alpen Capital report which said Qatar insurance sector is expected to register the highest growth among the Gulf countries with premium slated to grow by an average 30% in the next five years to $4.46bn.Industries Qatar (IQ), Qatar Telecom, al khaliji, Qatar Electricity and Water and Nakilat were among the prime shakers in the week that featured United Development Company plan to increase the capital by 50% through a rights issue.The QE has fallen 5.88% year-to-date (ytd) vis-à-vis Muscat’s plunge of 17.32%, Kuwait (16.82%), Bahrain (11.96%), Dubai (10.15%), Saudi Arabia (9.69%) and Abu Dhabi (4.76%).Within the QE, the industry group index lost 2.49%, insurance (1.77%) and services (0.95%); while that of banks gained 0.78% in the week that saw National Leasing appoint Ernst and Young to advice on its proposed capital hike.The stocks of services, industry, insurance and lenders have lost ytd 11.10%, 9.98%, 7.19% and 1.85% respectively.Of the 42 stocks; only 18 advanced, while 22 declined and one was unchanged. Another one was not traded in the week that saw credit rating agency Fitch affirm Qatar Islamic Bank’s long-term issuer default rating at ‘A’ with a stable outlook and viability rating at ‘bbb’.Two each of the eight banks and the five insurers; five of the seven industries and 13 of the 22 services settle lower in the week that saw Doha Bank Group CEO R Seetharaman say that the share of manufacturing sector in Qatar’s economy is expected to double in the coming years, offering tremendous scope for small and medium enterprises that are critical for diversification.Market capitalisation shrank 1.06% or about QR5bn to QR430.43bn in the week mainly with large and small cap equities losing 0.43% and 0.39%; while mid and micro caps rose 0.06% and 0.04% respectively.Large, mid and small caps have shrunk ytd 15.82%, 9.04% and 8.54% respectively; even as micro caps gained 6.12%.Foreign institutions were increasingly profit takers as their net selling surged to 19.18% from 7.54% in the previous week.A marginally lower 18.32% of them bought stocks compared to 19.96% in the week ended August 18 whereas a much higher 37.5% offloaded against 27.5%.Domestic institutions’ bullish grip marginally strengthened amidst their lower exposure as net buying rose to 6.60% from 6.41% in the previous week.A lower 28.81% of them were into buying compared to 35.07% in the week ended August 18 and a lower 22.21% were into selling against 28.66%.Qatari retail investors’ bullish grip strengthened as their net buying rose to 10.6% from 2.41% in the previous week.A higher 41.18% of them purchased equities compared to 33.3% in the week ended August 18 while a marginally lower 30.58% sold compared to 30.89%.Non-Qatari individual investors turned bullish that they were net buyers to the tune of 1.98% against net sellers of 1.28% in the previous week.A marginally higher 11.69% of them were into buying compared to 11.68% in the week ended August 18 whereas a lower 9.71% were into selling against 12.96%.The bourse’s price-earning ratio, a measure of expensiveness, was 13.25 times as on August 25 compared to 11.29 times in the comparable period in the previous year.The price-to-book value was 1.67 times at the end of fourth week of August against 1.85 in the previous year period.Total trading volume was down 1% to 25.66mn shares whereas value rose 4% to QR1.15bn but transactions fell 2% to 18,980.The services sector dominated the trading ring in volume and deals whereas banks did so in value.The services’ stocks accounted for 53.20% of total trading volume (against 53.98% in the previous week); lenders 29.03% (32.38%); industry 16.64% (12.79%) and insurance 1.13% (0.85%).The banking sector’s trading volume plummeted 11% to 7.45mn shares and services by 2% to 13.65mn; whereas that of insurance gained 32% to 0.29mn and industry by 29% to 4.27mn.The lenders’ stocks accounted for 35.65% of total trading value (compared to 37.84% a week ago), services’ 32.17% (36.04%), industry’s 31.30% (25.23%) and insurance’s 0.87% (0.90%).The industrial stocks trading value surged 29% to QR356.49mn; while those of services fell 8% to QR371.77mn, insurance by 6% to QR13.41mn and banks by 2% to QR410.91mn.IQ accounted for 27.78% of total trading value, followed by QNB (12.07%) and Mawashi (10.27%).The services stocks’ share in total transactions stood at 46.55% (against 47.80% in the previous week), lenders at 32.54% (34.89%), industry at 19.24% (15.68%) and insurance at 1.68% (1.63%).The deals within banks were down 8% to 6,176 and services by 4% to 8,835; while those within industry gained 20% to 3,651 and insurance by 1% to 318.