By Santhosh V Perumal/Business ReporterThe Qatar Exchange (QE) was the worst performer among the seven Gulf bourses during the week.The telecom sector mainly drove the 20-stock Qatar Index down 0.66% against Abu Dhabi’s gains of 2.98% and Dubai (1.54%), Muscat (1.38%), Bahrain (1.06%) and Kuwait (0.18%); while Saudi Arabia was down 0.40% in the week that saw the precipitous fall on Thursday.On the other hand, Total Return Index rose 0.02% and Al Rayan Islamic Index 0.34% in the week that saw Qatar’s moves to exempt non-Qatari investors from paying taxes on their share of profits in the joint stock companies listed in the QE.Qatar’s index, however, rose 4.49% year-to-date (YTD) compared to Dubai’s stupendous gain of 18.53%, Abu Dhabi (14.89%), Kuwait (8%), Muscat (3.80%), Bahrain (3.49%) and Saudi Arabia (3.43%).Major losers included Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Insurance (QIC), National Leasing, Qatar Telecom, Commercialbank (Cb), QNB, Gulf International Services, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar and Milaha; even as Al Meera, Qatari Investors Group, Industries Qatar (IQ), United Development Company (UDC) and Nakilat bucked the trend in the week.Nakilat, UDC and Doha Bank were the most active by volume and value in the week that saw Qatar Chamber say that a clear picture will emerge in 1-2 years regarding the awarding of projects related to infrastructure and those relating to the 2022 World Cup.The QE All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) gained 0.16% with the insurance index gaining the maximum of 1.59%, transport (0.91%), industrials (0.56%), realty (0.31%), consumer goods (0.1%) and banks and financial services (0.07%); while that of telecom shrank 2.12% in the week that featured Doha Bank lining up its rights issue next week to raise up to QR1.55bn.Telecom, industrials, transport, consumer goods and banking sectors were seen to outperform the key barometers with their indices gaining YTD 9.81%, 6.86%, 6.57%, 6.15% and 4.89% respectively; while that of insurance gained 1.68% and the real estate index by a paltry 0.14%.Of the 42 stocks; 19 advanced, while 20 declined, two were unchanged and one was not traded in the week that saw a FTSE global survey which found Qatar, along with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as becoming increasingly becoming popular as investment destination in the Middle East and North Africa region due to the rise of localised liquidity pools and growing adherence to sophisticated collateral and risk management techniques.Five of the 12 banks and financial institutions, four of the eight consumer goods, three each of the five insurers and the four realty, two each of the two telecom and the three transport and one of the eight industrials stocks close lower in the week.Market capitalisation shrank 0.67% or more than QR3bn to QR473.59bn with mid and large cap equities notably losing 1.61% and 1.03%; even as micro and small caps gained 0.89% and 0.1% respectively in the week that witnessed QIC reinsurance subsidiary Q-Re announce that it will soon establish operations in Zurich and Bermuda as part of its “significant” step onto the global reinsurance business.Mid, large and small cap equities have gained 4.88%, 3.1% and 1.56% respectively; while micro caps lost 1.11%.The bourse’s price-earning ratio, a measure of expensiveness, was 12 .71times in the third week of February against 12.07 times in the comparable period of 2012.The price-to-book value was 1.71 times at the end of February 21 against 1.67 times in the year-ago period.The dividend yield, which takes into account cash dividends, stood at 4.02% in the third week of February compared to 3.68% in the year-ago period.Qatari retail investors were net sellers to the tune of 2.85% or QR42.11mn. A lower 30.34% of them were into buying against 33.19% into selling.Non-Qatari individual investors were also net profit takers to the extent of 2.63% or QR38.86mn. A lower 10.97% of them bought equities compared to 13.6% of those who offloaded.Domestic institutions were net buyers to the tune of 5.77% or QR85.26mn. A higher 32.74% of them were into buying against 26.97% into selling.Foreign institutions were net sellers to the extent of 0.3% or QR4.43mn. A marginally lower 25.94% of them purchased stocks compared to 26.24% of those who sold.Total trading volume rose 44% to 37.55mn shares, value by 13% to QR1.48bn and transactions by 20% to 17,448 in the week.In terms of volume, banks and financial services stocks accounted for 34.59% of the total against 26.7% the previous week, real estate 24.02% (24.43%), transport 18.27% (12.77%), industrials 12.2% (22.44%), telecom 5.62% (5.1%), consumer goods 4.31% (6.6%) and insurance 0.99% (1.96%).The transport sector’s trading volume more than doubled to 6.86mn shares, banks and financial services’ surged 87% to 12.99mn, telecom by 59% to 2.11mn and realty by 42% to 9.02mn, while that of insurance plummeted 27% to 0.37mn, industrials by 22% to 4.58mn and consumer goods by 6% to 1.62mn.In terms of value, the banks and financial sector’s shares constituted 41.19% of the total compared to 25.65% a week ago, industrials 23.72% (41.52%), real estate 11.75% (9.17%), transport 9.38% (5.05%), consumer goods 7.89% (9.86%), telecom 4.87% (6.12%) and insurance 1.20% (2.63%).The transport sector’s stocks trading value more than doubled to QR138.54mn, banks and financial services’ soared 81% to QR608.66mn and realty by 45% to QR173.64mn; whereas that of insurance plunged 48% to QR17.77mn, industrials by 36% to QR350.52mn, consumer goods by 10% to QR116.59mn and telecom by 10% to QR71.93mn.IQ stocks accounted for 13.84% of the total stocks trading value, Doha Bank (9.24%) and Cb (9.05%).In terms of transactions, the banks and financial services sector’s share in total was 35.85% against 26.96% the previous week, industrials 21.17% (25.16%), real estate 13.7% (14.22%), transport 12.15% (8.73%), consumer goods 9.48% (13.19%), telecom 5.69% (8.14%) and insurance 1.95% (3.60%).The transport sector’s stocks transactions expanded 67% to 2,120; banks and financial services by 59% to 6,255; real estate by 15% to 2,391 and industrials by 1% to 3,694; whereas those of insurance tanked 35% to 341; telecom by 16% to 993 and consumer goods by 14% to 1,654.