By Santhosh V Perumal
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The Qatar Exchange yesterday sustained its bull-run for the third day mainly on buying interests in industrials and banking stocks.
Domestic institutions were seen to exert the bullish momentum to the 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data), which settled 0.56% higher at 10,128.52 points.
Buying support of foreign institutions was seen considerably reduced in the market, which is up 21.17% year-to-date.
Overall market liquidity rose, mainly on substantial surge in volumes in the transport and telecom stocks.
Major movers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Qatar Insurance Company and United Development Company; even as Nakilat, al khaliji, Vodafone Qatar and Milaha bucked the trend.
The 20-stock Total Return Index also gained 0.56% to 14,471.33 points, All Share Index (with wider constituents) by 0.50% to 2,531.37 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.36% to 2,889.36 points. All the three indices factored in dividend income as well.
Industrial stocks appreciated 0.81%, insurance (0.67%), banks and financial services (0.56%), real estate (0.51%), telecom (0.35%) and consumer goods (0.18%); while transport fell 0.71%.
Market capitalisation expanded 0.52% or about QR3bn to QR545.97bn. Large and mid cap equities extended gains.
Domestic institutions were increasingly bullish as their net buying soared to QR55.31mn against QR20.66mn the previous day.
Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser intensity as their net buying sunk to QR2.8mn compared to QR18.81mn on Tuesday.
Non-Qatari individuals turned bearish as they were net sellers to the tune of QR12.35mn against net buyers of QR0.03mn the previous day.
Qatari individual investors continued to be profit takers as their net selling stood at QR45.76mn compared to QR39.47mn on Tuesday.
Total trading volume rose 11% to 11.61mn stocks, value by 38% to QR475.16mn and transactions by 12% to 5,927.
The transport sector’s trading volume almost quadrupled to 1.27mn shares and value almost tripled to QR35.72mn on a 36% jump in deals to 399.
The insurance sector saw its trading volume surge 91% to 0.21mn equities and value more than doubled to QR12.76mn on a 47% rise in transactions to 207.
The telecom sector’s trading volume shot up 75% to 1.07mn shares but value soared about six-fold to QR37.87mn on a 49% gain in deals to 323.
There was a 9% expansion in real estate sector’s trading volume to 3.94mn stocks and 1% in value to QR92.16mn whereas transactions shrank 19% to 1,124.
The consumer goods sector’s trading volume was up 9% to 0.63mn shares, value by 83% to QR37.11mn and deals by 26% to 622.
However, the industrials sector’s trading volume plummeted 16% to 1.6mn shares, while value surged 73% to QR135.31mn and transactions by 47% to 1,592.
The banking sector’s trading volume shrank 12% to 2.9mn shares, value by 6% to QR124.23mn and deals by 2% to 1,660.
In the debt market, there was no trading of bonds and treasury bills.
IPO advisory group holds meeting on new initiatives
Qatar Exchange has held its second initial public offering (IPO) advisory group meeting as part of its broader effort to strengthen its engagement with the financial community.
The aim of the meeting was to seek input from the various market participants on its new initiatives and comes in the wake of many listings that are on the pipeline.
Expecting QE to be among the most active Gulf bourse over the next 12 months as more listings could be expected, a Deloitte survey said despite the recent change in leadership in Qatar, respondents were “cautiously optimistic” about the prospects for IPO volumes and trading to increase, with a pipeline of IPOs looking to target the liquidity in the market.
QE chairman Hussein Ali al-Abdulla had hinted that four Qatar Petroleum companies are set to be listed.
Doha Global Investment, an investment company partially owned by Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of Qatar Investment Authority, had this year postponed its IPO to a later date.
The bourse spokesman said the idea of the advisory meeting was designed to provide the market intermediaries with an opportunity to discuss the challenges and the roadblocks faced when dealing with important topics related to IPO’s and on priorities the IPO advisory group wishes to see addressed.
“The views and contributions provided by the participants of the advisory group, in this second meeting, have been extremely valuable not only at the exchange level but also to the overall financial community here in Qatar. QE intends to continue this engagement with the presence of QFMA and plans to hold a series of these events in order to jointly construct a unified path ahead,” according to Abdelaziz al-Emadi, Listing Director at QE, said.
The meeting, which also saw the participation of QFMA (Qatar Financial Market Authority), emphasised the importance of the bourse’s initiative in seeking different perspectives on key issues and for soliciting feedback aimed at better tailoring the overall process.
The discussions were centered on main market criteria; the listing advisor duties, qualifications requirements and licensing; yearly periodic disclosure timing; and listing advisor duties and criteria in the QE Venture Market.
QE and the IPO advisory group members intend to work together on mechanisms to overcome obstacles and the relevant issues related to the overall IPO process in Qatar, the spokesman said.
Valuations appear to be a compelling factor for investors to look at QE with Amwal Investment recently saying that Qatari stocks are relatively cheap compared to the rest of the world.