By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Attractive valuations helped Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) gain as much as 346 points to stay above the 10,200 mark; making it the best performer among the Gulf bourses during the week.

About 79% of the traded stocks extended gains during the week which saw QSE announce that soon to start margin trading will cover only the 20 stocks in the main index.

Opening the week weak at 9,906 points, the market kept gaining for the rest of the sessions as attractive valuations prompted investors hunt for quality stocks and thus the index settled at 10,259 points.

Buying was seen intense – particularly in the telecom, real estate and insurance sectors – during the week which witnessed QNB entered into a “definitive” agreement with National Bank of Greece to acquire its entire 99.81% stake in Turkey's Finansbank for $2.94bn.

Non-Qatari individual investors turned bullish to substantially instill confidence in the market during the week which saw QIIB’s move to establish a joint venture bank in Morocco in association with CIH Bank.

Lower net selling by foreign institutions and local retail investors also helped the bourse during the week which witnessed Qatar Electricity and Water Company and Qatar Petroleum enter into a pact to establish a joint venture for the generation of electricity from solar power.

The 20-stock Qatar Index soared 3.49% during the week which witnessed Qatar’s October producer price index plunge more than 36% year-on-year due to o a sharp double-digit decline in the prices for crude and natural gas as well as refined petroleum products, basic metals and basic chemicals.

Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat and Bahrain bourses reported 2.25%, 2.09%, 1.12% and 0.1% gains; while Saudi Arabia and Kuwait fell 1.48% and 0.07% respectively during the week which saw Doha Bank’s intent to raise capital in 2016 to meet strategic business development requirements.

QSE has, however, fallen 16.5% year-to-date compared to 16.87% in Dubai, 16.7% in Saudi Arabia, 16.01% in Bahrain, 14.57% in Muscat, 14.01% in Kuwait and 6.34% in Abu Dhabi.

The 20-stock Total Return Index gained 3.49%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 3.23% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 3.9% during the week which saw the overall trade volumes decline.

Telecom stocks appreciated 7.57%, realty (5.71%), insurance (3.64%), banks and financial services (3.01%), industrials (2.54%) and consumer goods (1.55%); whereas transport fell 0.62% during the week which saw banking, real estate, industrials and telecom stocks together constituted more than 80% of the trading volume.

Of the 43 stocks, as many as 33 gained, while only four advanced and five were unchanged. Another one was not traded during the week which saw Gulf International Services (GIS) and Masraf Al Rayan dominate the trading ring in terms of volume and value.

As many as 11 of the 12 banks and financial services, eight of the nine industrials, five of the eight consumer goods, all of the four realty, three of the five insurers and all of the two telecom stocks close higher in the week.

Major gainers included QNB, Masraf Al Rayan, Islamic Holding Group, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, Mannai Corporation, Aamal Company, GIS, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Qatar Insurance, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo and Qatari German Company for Medical Devices; even as Milaha and Qatar National Cement bucked the trend during the week.

Market capitalisation shot up 3.14% or about QR17bn to QR541.6bn with large, micro, small and mid cap equities gaining 3.21%, 2.95%, 1.6% and 1.59% respectively during the week.

Large, micro, mid and small cap stocks are, however, down 22.28%, 16.75%, 10.27% and 10.18% respectively year-to-date.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR31.38mn against net sellers of QR9.82mn the week ended December 17.

Foreign institutions’ net selling fell considerably to QR7.18mn compared to QR75.05mn the previous week.

Local retail investors’ net profit booking weakened to QR29.75mn against QR38.37mn the week ended December 17.

However, domestic institutions’ net buying plummeted to QR5.36mn compared to QR123.1mn the previous week.

Total trade volume fell 11% to 27.95mn shares, value by 26% to QR956.74mn and transactions by 17% to 15,555 during the week.

The market witnessed 52% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 1.25mn equities, 51% by value to QR38.04mn and 56% in deals to 630.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume plummeted 48% to 6.81mn stocks, value by 41% to QR343.4mn and transactions by 31% to 4,141.

However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume almost quadrupled to 3.82mn shares, value soared 26% to QR77.88mn and deals by 30% to 1,739.

There was 61% surge plunge in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.5mn equities, 49% in value to QR30.1mn and 1% in transactions to 380.

The telecom sector’s trade volume expanded 18% to 4.59mn stocks; whereas value shrank 16% to QR74.43mn and deals by 27% to 2,216.

The real estate sector saw 2% rise in trade volume to 5.58mn shares but on 10% fall in value to QR113.29mn and 7% in transactions to 2,408.

The industrials sector’s trade volume was up 2% to 5.4mn equities, while value declined 17% to QR279.61mn and deals by 1% to 4,041.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds during the week.

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