Weekly Market Report

The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index gained 505.19 points, or 5.85%, during the trading week to close at 9,135.86. Market capitalisation increased by 5.1% to QR502.2bn versus QR477.7bn at the end of the previous trading week. Of the 45 listed companies, 33 ended the week higher, while 11 declined and one remained unchanged. 
Qatar Insurance Co (QATI) was the best performing stock for the week with a gain of 14.1% on 335.1k shares traded. On the other hand, Ahli Bank (ABQK) was the worst performing stock for the week with a decline of 21.2% on 23.6k shares traded.
Industries Qatar (IQCD), Masraf Al Rayan (MARK) and QNB Group (QNBK) were the primary contributors to the weekly index gains. IQCD was the biggest contributor to the index’s weekly increase, adding 104.4 points to the index. MARK was the second biggest contributor to the mentioned gains, adding 97.7 points to the index. Moreover, QNBK added 61.3 points to the index. However, Al-Meera Consumer Goods Co (MERS) shed only 3.1 points off the index.
Trading value during the week increased by 76.2% to reach QR1.52bn versus QR866.1mn in the prior week. The banks and financial services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 38.9% of the total trading value. The industrials sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 21.7 % of the total trading value. MARK was the top value traded stock during the week with total traded value of QR153.9mn.
Trading volume increased by 65.6% to reach 62.6mn shares versus 61.9mn in the prior week. The number of transactions increased by 64.6% to reach 25,698 transactions versus 15,610 in the prior week. 
The banks and financial services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 31.8%, followed by the industrials sector which accounted for 26.4% of the overall trading volume. Qatar First Bank (QFBQ) was the top volume traded stock during the week with 6.9mn shares.
Foreign institutions remained bullish with net buying of QR144.2mn versus net buying of QR10.3mn in the prior week. Qatari institutions remained bearish with net selling of QR58.9mn versus net selling of QR17.4mn in the week before. Foreign retail investors turned bearish with net selling of QR9.0mn versus net buying of QR11.3mn in the prior week. Qatari retail investors remained bearish with net selling of QR76.1mn versus net selling of QR3.9mn the week before. 
Foreign institutions bought (on a net basis) $31mn worth of Qatari equities since the beginning of 2018.