By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Local retail investors’ bullish outlook and lower selling pressure from their non-Qatari counterparts led the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) report a marginal 17 points increase in its key index during the week.

Telecom, industrials and consumer goods witnessed above average buying interests during the week that saw Qatar's gross national income (GNI) plunge 17.2% year-on-year to QR150.81bn in the second quarter of this year.

Investors were seen scrambling for large cap equities during the week that witnessed Gulf Warehousing Company (GWC) say that its QR458mn rights issue will hit the market from Sunday.

However, there was increased net selling pressure from domestic institutions and lower buying interests of their foreign counterparts during the week that saw  Islamic Holding Group (IHG), a stock brokerage firm in which QIIB has a majority stake, disclose that it is  planning to raise as much as QR100mn through a rights issue.

Four of the seven sectors were under buying spotlight as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.15% during the week that saw Ahlibank Qatar report more than 10% year-on-year growth in net profit to QR505.68mn during January-September this year.

Muscat, Bahrain and Saudi Arabian bourses had gained 9.72%, 0.23% and 0.18% respectively during the week that saw Mazaya Qatar report 5% jump in net profit to QR92.53mn in the first nine months of this year.

QSE has, however, fallen 4.18% year-to-date against Bahrain’s decline of 11.84%, Saudi Arabia’s 7.61% and Muscat’s 6.84%.

The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining faster than the other indices during the week, which saw United Development Company, the master developer of The Pearl-Qatar, is selling 56 villa plots for residential development in Giardino Villas.

The 20-stock Total Return Index was up 0.15% and All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.18% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.34% during the week that witnessed Vodafone Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan and Barwa dominate the trading ring in terms of both volumes and value respectively.

Opening the week strong, the index reached a high of 11,865 points on Monday, thus showing signs of breaking the 11,900 resistance level, but strong selling in the next two days dragged to touch a low of 11,755 points on Wednesday. The last day of the week saw some feeble gains and the index settled at 11,772 points.

Telecom stocks appreciated 2.19%, industrials (1.05%), consumer goods (0.8%) and banks and financial services (0.28%); while insurance, transport and realty shrank 2.9%, 1.6% and 0.11% respectively during the week.

Of the 43 stocks, as many as 21 gained, while 19 fell and two were unchanged. Another one was not traded during the week that saw the real estate, telecom and banking sectors together constitute more than 74% of the overall trading volume.

Eight of the 12 banks and financial services, six of the nine industrials, three of the eight consumer goods, all of the two telecom and one each of the four realty and the three transport stocks closed higher during the week.

Major gainers included Dlala, Vodafone Qatar, Gulf International Services, Woqod, Qatar National Cement, Aamal Company, QIIB, Qatari Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank and Alijarah Holding; whereas Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Mannai Corporation, IHG, Qatar Insurance, Nakilat, GWC and Barwa bucked the trend during the week.

Market capitalisation rose 0.23% or more than QR1bn to QR617.92bn mainly on 0.46% increase in large cap equities; while micro, mid and small caps fell 1.88%, 0.54% and 0.52% respectively during the week.

Large, micro and mid cap stocks have, however, reported year-to-date declines of 11.44%. 5.88% and 1.71% respectively; while small caps gained 6.39%.

Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR49.55mn compared with net sellers of QR8.87mn the previous week.

Non-Qatari retail investors’ net profit booking substantially fell to QR19.88mn compared to QR44.64mn the week ended October 8.

However, domestic institutions’ net selling strengthened to QR63.27mn against QR35.49mn the previous week.

Foreign institutions’ net buying considerably weakened to QR33.73mn compared to QR89.01mn the week ended October 8.

Total trade volume was down 2% to 39.75mn shares, value by 1% to QR1.4bn and transactions by 3% to 21,121 during the week.

The consumer goods sector saw 41% plunge in the trade volume to 2.18mn equities, 26% in value to QR91.94mn and 17% in deals to 1,602.

The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 31% to 11.17mn stocks, value by 29% to QR263.51mn and transactions by 26% to 3,352.

There was 24% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 2.26mn shares, 18% in value to QR71.36mn and 9% in deals to 1,443.

The industrials sector’s trade volume was down 8% to 5.41mn equities, value by 7% to QR326.55mn and transactions by 5% to 5,823.

However, the telecom sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 10.47mn stocks, value soared 82% to QR183.74mn and deals by 30% to 2,682.

The banks and financial services sector reported 29% surge in trade volume to 7.96mn shares, 23% in value to QR438.04mn and 15% in deals to 5,944.

The insurance sector’s trade volume expanded 20% to 0.3mn equities, value by 35% to QR24.65mn and transactions by less than 1% to 275.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills, while as many as 1,000 government bonds valued at QR10.01mn changed hands across one deal during the week.

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