Five of the six sectors witnessed profit booking, yet the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) settled marginally lower, but to remain above 10,100 levels this week.

Increased net selling by local retail investors and the bearish outlook of their non-Qatari counterparts led the 20-stock Qatar Index settle 0.07% lower, but capitalisation eroded more than QR3bn this week, which saw Ezdan Holding all set to launch its maiden multi-purpose real estate project in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, as part of its efforts to strengthen its foot-hold in the overseas markets.

The Dubai bourse shrank 1.23%, Abu Dhabi (0.59%) and Muscat (0.31%); while Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain gained 0.83%, 0.81% and 0.13% respectively this week which saw the QSE to soon introduce new tools to assist the listed companies in unifying the disclosure format and procedures, a move that could greatly enhance both retail and institutional investors' confidence.

The QSE’s year-to-date (YTD) losses were at 3.19% against 6.36% in Muscat, 4.33% in Dubai and 3.78% in Saudi Arabia; whereas Kuwait, Bahrain and Abu Dhabi added 17.01%, 7.24% and 0.77% respectively.

Selling was extremely skewed towards small and midcap scrips on the QSE this week which witnessed Vodafone Qatar report net loss of QR269.2mn for the 12-month ended March 31, 2017.

Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the main index and other indices this week which saw Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) price its $750mn five-year sukuk.

Domestic institutions’ buying support was also seen weakening this week which saw Milaha launch its doo-to-door shipping service between Qatar and the UAE.

Insurance, telecom and consumer goods were seen as the main drag this week, which however saw non-Qatari institutions turn bullish.

Overall trade turnover and volumes declined this week, which saw telecom, banking and real estate sectors account for about 89% of the volumes.

Telecom sector accounted for 36% of the total volume, banks and financial services (30%), realty (23%), transport and industrials (4% each), consumer goods (3%) and insurance (2%) this week which witnessed Qatar's cost of living, based on consumer price index register a marginal 0.2% fall month-on-month in April this year, mainly on lower expenses towards restaurants, recreation and housing.

Banks and financial services’ share in total trade turnover was 38%, real estate (21%), telecom (16%), industrials (9%), consumer goods (7%), transport (5%) and insurance (4%) this week which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.

Opening the week weak at 10,062 points, the market then saw strong gains for the next three sessions to reach a high of 10,145 points. However, the last day’s profit booking pressure led the index settle seven points lower this week which saw the Group Securities, QNB Financial Services and Dlala Brokerage together accounted for more than 60% of trade turnover in the QSE in the first four months of this year.

Kamco analysts were of the view that said a close above 10,000 points would enhance further advance towards 10,225 points although weekly relative strength index indicator is currently looking "negative".

The 20-stock Total Return Index was down 0.07%, All Share Index 0.33% and Al Rayan Islamic Index 0.02% this week which saw Vodafone Qatar, Ezdan and Barwa dominate trading ring in volume and value.

The insurance sector index shrank 1.14%, telecom (0.87%), consumer goods (0.79%), realty (0.21%) and banks and financial services (0.14%); whereas transport was up 0.06%.

Market capitalisation eroded 0.56% to QR537.49bn as small and midcap scrips shrank 1.18% and 1.16%; while large and microcaps were u0p 0.1% and 0.05% respectively this week.

Mid, small and microcap equities’ YTD losses were seen at 11.45%, 4.69% and 2.65% respectively; whereas large caps gained 3.7%.

More than 53% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Vodafone Qatar, QNB, Industries Qatar, Qatar General and Reinsurance, Ahli Bank, QIIB, Qatar First Bank, al khaliji, Woqod, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ooredoo and Nakilat this week.

Nevertheless, Commercial Bank, QIB, Islamic Holding Group, Salam International Investment, Mannai Corporation, Al Meera, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Electricity and Water, Aamal Company, Doha Insurance, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Barwa and Gulf Warehousing were among the gainers this week.

Local individual investors’ net selling strengthened perceptibly to QR64.95mn from QR58.47mn the previous week.

Domestic funds’ net buying declined substantially to QR58.72mn from QR95.49mn the week ended May 11.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking increased to QR7.35mn from QR5.75mn the week ago.

However, non-Qatari institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR13.58mn against net profit takers of QR31.15mn the previous week.

Total trade volume fell 1% to 44.29mn shares, value by 15% to QR1.02bn and transactions by 13% to 13,033 this week.

There was 52% plunge in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 1.59mn equities, 55% in value to QR95.68mn and 45% in deals to 1,698.

The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 47% to 0.73mn stocks, value by 51% to QR39.82mn and transactions by 11% to 415.

The market witnessed 47% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 1.55mn shares, 68% in value to QR47.17mn and 22% in deals to 1,092.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume tanked 13% to 1.18mn equities, value by 35% to QR68.6mn and transactions by 27% to 1,128.

The telecom sector reported 1% decline in trade volume to 15.74mn stocks and 4% in value to QR160.2mn but on 15% increase in deals to 1,726.

However, the banks and financial services sector’s trade volume soared 24% to 13.32mn shares, 20% in value to QR390.64mn and 11% in transactions to 5,229.

The real estate sector saw 12% expansion in trade volume to 10.18mn equities and 36% in value to QR219.06mn but on 22% decline in deals to 1,745.

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