An across the board buying – particularly in telecom and real estate – imparted a 4.99% lift to the 20-stock Qatar Index to cross the 8,600 levels with an ease this week which had only three working days in view of the Qatar National Day.
Foreign institutions continued to be bullish albeit with lesser vigour this week which saw Qatar Central Bank’s second strategic plan outline intent to establish a deposit protection framework as well as develop a cyber-security lab.
Much of the thrust to the market came from large cap stocks this week which also saw rising global energy prices lend support to a bullish run.
"The market approached the strong support level at 7,500 points before seeing some gains and eyes now have shifted towards the horizontal line at 8,200 points, which if broken would anticipate further upward correction to 8,375 points and may be more to 8,660 points," Kamco technical analysis had said.
Domestic institutions’ bullish outlook also the market this week which saw the US-based Institute of International Finance opine that tighter monetary policy in the Gulf region in view of rising Fed rates, may not only lower non-oil growth and squeeze private sector credit but also reduce the appetite for the debt.
Islamic stocks were seen outperforming other indices this week which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
The market was rather skewed towards gainers this week which witnessed industrials, banking and telecom counters together accounted for about 73% of total trading volume.
The industrials sector accounted for 30% of the total volume, banks and financial services (25%), telecom (17%), realty (15%), and transport, insurance and consumer goods (4% each) this week.
The banks and financial services’ share in total trade turnover was 36%, industrials (30%), insurance (10%), real estate (9%), telecom (8%), and transport and consumer goods (4% each) this week.
Major gainers included Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Industries Qatar, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Aamal Company, QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Alijarah Holding, Qatar First Bank, Salam International Investment, Woqod, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, Gulf Warehousing and Nakilat this week.
Non-Qatari funds’ net buying fell marginally to QR97.78mn compared to QR100.46mn the week ended December 14.
Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR11.73mn against net sellers of QR64.31mn the previous week.
However, local retail investors’ net selling increased considerably to QR106.58mn compared to QR39.47mn a week ago.
Non-Qatari individuals were net profit takers to the extent of QR3.07mn against net buyers of QR3.32mn the previous week.
Total trade volume was down 1% to 60.48mn shares, while value rose 14% to QR1.4bn despite 17% lower deals to 16,682.
There was 42% plunge in the transport sector’s trade volume to 2.68mn equities, 47% in value to QR59.91mn and 33% in transactions to 1,154.
The real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 40% to 9.17mn stocks, value by 39% to QR120.36mn and deals by 33% to 2,718.
The market witnessed 13% shrinkage in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 2.14mn shares, 35% in value to QR49.78mn and 32% in transactions to 1,038.
The telecom sector’s trade volume was down 2% to 10.44mn equities, value by 16% to QR110.43mn and deals by 44% to 1,381.
However, the industrials sector saw 54% surge in trade volume to 18.42mn stocks, 91% in value to QR422.31mn and 10% in transactions to 4,628.
The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 12% to 2.62mn shares and value by 91% to QR135.05mn but on 60% decline in deals to 279.
The banks and financial services sector saw 12% expansion in trade volume to 15.01mn equities, 19% in value to QR499.34mn and 1% in transactions to 5,484.
An across the board buying u2013 particularly in telecom and real estate u2013 imparted a 4.99% lift to the 20-stock Qatar Index to cross the 8,600 levels with an ease this week which had only three working days in view of the Qatar National Day.
The 2018 budget continued to support the Qatar Stock Exchange this week which saw another 409 points addition in key barometer and more than QR22bn in capitalisation.
