Weekly Market Report

The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index decreased 366.30 points, or 4.03%, during the trading week to close at 8,730.06. Market capitalisation fell by 4.06% to QR467.6bn versus QR487.4bn at the end of the previous trading week. Of the 45 listed companies, 10 ended the week higher, while 33 declined and two remained unchanged. Vodafone Qatar (VFQS) was the best performing stock for the week with a gain of 20.8% on 12.4mn shares traded. On the other hand, Qatar Insurance (QATI) was the worst performing stock for the week with a decline of 25.3% on 879.2k shares traded.QNB Group (QNBK), Industries Qatar (IQCD) and Masraf Al Rayan (MARK) were the primary contributors to the weekly index decline. QNBK was the biggest contributor to the index’s weekly decline, deleting 61.2 points from the index. IQCD was the second biggest contributor to the mentioned decline, deleting 56.6 points from the index. Moreover, MARK shaved off 51.6 points from the index. However, Vodafone Qatar (VFQS) added 53.7 points to the index.Trading value during the week increased by 52.3% to reach QR1.2bn versus QR792.7mn in the prior week. The banks and financial services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 33.27% of the total trading value. The industrials sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 22.00% of the total trading value. IQCD was the top value traded stock during the week with total traded value of QR116.0mn.Trading volume increased by 55.9% to reach 51.3mn shares versus 32.9mn in the prior week. The number of transactions rose by 37.2% to reach 18,506 versus 13,489 in the prior week. The banks and financial services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 30.3%, followed by the telecoms sector, which accounted for 24.9% of the overall trading volume. VFQS was the top volume traded stock during the week with 12.4mn shares.Foreign institutions turned bearish with net selling of QR75.6mn versus net buying of QR1.3mn in the prior week. Qatari institutions remained bullish with net buying of QR64.1mn versus net buying of QR57.4mn in the week before. Foreign retail investors turned bullish with net buying of QR11.1mn versus net selling of QR2.8mn in the prior week. Qatari retail investors turned marginally bullish with net buying of QR0.3mn versus net selling of QR55.8mn the week before. Foreign institutions bought (on a net basis) $63.0mn worth of Qatari equities since the beginning of 2018.