The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index increased by 409.40 points, or 4.99%, during the trading week to close at 8,621.34. Market capitalisation increased by 4.92% to QR475.7bn versus QR453.4bn at the end of the previous trading week. Of the 45 listed companies, 42 ended the week higher, while two declined and one company remained unchanged. Investment Holding Group (IHGS) was the best performing stock for the week with a gain of 16.7% on 503k shares traded. On the other hand, Gulf International Services (GISS) was the worst performing stock for the week with a decline of 0.39% on 773k shares traded.
Ooredoo (ORDS), Masraf Al Rayan (MARK) and QNB Group (QNBK) were the primary contributors to the weekly index gains. ORDS was the biggest contributor to the index’s weekly increase, adding 72.4 points to the index. MARK was the second biggest contributor to the gains, tacking 64.0 points to the index. Moreover, QNBK contributed 60.0 points to the index. However, GISS deleted only 0.43 points from the index.
Trading value during the week increased by 13.6% to reach QR1.39bn versus QR QR1.23bn in the prior week. The banks and financial services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 35.75% of the total trading value. The industrials sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 30.23 % of the total trading value. Industries Qatar (IQCD) was the top value traded stock during the week with total traded value of QR230.8mn.
Trading volume decreased marginally by 0.6% to reach 60.8mn shares versus 60.8mn in the prior week. The number of transactions decreased by 16.87% to reach 16,682 versus 20,068 transactions in the prior week. The industrial sector led the trading volume, accounting for 30.45%, followed by the banks and financial services sector which accounted for 24.81% of the overall trading volume. Investment Holding Group (IGRD) was the top volume traded stock during the week with 11.1mn shares.
Foreign institutions remained bullish with net buying of QR97.8mn versus net buying of QR100.4mn in the prior week. Qatari institutions turned bullish with net buying of QR11.7mn versus net selling of QR64.4mn the week before. Foreign retail investors turned bearish with net selling of QR3.0mn versus net buying of QR3.4mn in the prior week. Qatari retail investors remained bearish with net selling of QR106.5mn versus net selling of QR39.4mn the week before. 
In 2017 year-to-date, foreign institutions bought (on a net basis) $809.8mn worth of Qatari equities.
The index rebounded sharply in the past two weeks; it ended this week up by almost 5% from the week before and stopped at 8,621.34. The current upswing could continue on the back of recent strong weekly candlesticks and may result into a U-shaped rally.
Candlestick chart – A candlestick chart is a price chart that displays the high, low, open, and close for a security. The ‘body’ of the chart is portion between the open and close price, while the high and low intraday movements form the ‘shadow’. The candlestick may represent any time frame. We use a one-day candlestick chart (every candlestick represents one trading day) in our analysis.
Doji candlestick pattern – A Doji candlestick is formed when a security’s open and close are practically equal. The pattern indicates indecisiveness, and based on preceding price actions and future confirmation, may indicate a bullish or bearish trend reversal.