Substantial weakening of selling pressure from domestic funds helped the Qatar Stock Exchange gain more than 118 points and its key index surpassed 9,900 levels this week.
Transport and industrials counters witnessed higher than average demand this week which saw Moody’s, an international credit rating agency, upgraded Qatar’s banking sector outlook to “stable” from “negative”.
Small and midcap segments witnessed heavy demand as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 1.21% this week which saw Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Woqod and Qatar Insurance figuring in the key barometer.
Islamic stocks were however seen gaining slower than the other indices on the market, which has seen 16.18% gains year-to-date.
The weakened net selling by local retail individuals also helped in the bullish momentum in the market this week which saw non-Qatari individual investors turned bearish.
Notwithstanding the contraction in microcap equities, market capitalisation enhanced more than QR7bn or 1.28% to QR553.67bn this week which saw the US-based economic think-tank Institute of International Finance view that Qatar’s external and fiscal balances are expected to show marked improvement this year despite the ongoing regional tension and growing emerging market stress.
On a year-to-date basis, both large and midcap segments were seen appreciating 23.86% and 14.37% respectively.
The market witnessed a total volume of 9,182 QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR0.21mn trade across 21 transactions and as many as 4,433 QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR0.43mn change hands across 14 deals this week which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
The Total Return Index rose 1.21% and All Share Index by 1.02% and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.69% this week which saw a Barwa Real Estate group subsidiary Barwa Al Sadd acquire 75% stake in Millennium Plaza Hotel and the Wellness Center for QR501.64mn from Katara Hospitality.
The transport index soared 3.77%, industrials (2.61%), consumer goods (1.19%) and banks and financial services (1.05%); while realty, insurance and telecom declined 1.33%, 0.88% and 0.76% respectively this week which saw alkhaliji witness more than three times oversubscription to its $500mn debt issue.
Major gainers included Gulf International Services, Ahlibank, Nakilat, Doha bank and Milaha; while Dlala, Salam International Investment, Qatar First Bank, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices were among the losers this week which saw industrials, banking and real estate stocks constitute more than three-fourth of the total trading volume.
The industrials sector constituted 34% of total volume, banks and financial (26%), real estate (15%), transport (10%), telecom and consumer goods (6% each), and insurance (4%); while in terms of trade turnover, banking sector’s share was 32% in the total, industrials (31%), consumer goods (18%), realty (7%), transport (6%), insurance (4%) and telecom (3%) this week.
Domestic institutions’ net selling weakened significantly to QR17.83mn compared to QR151.55mn the week ended September 27.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking declined perceptibly to QR96.29mn against QR100.25mn the previous week.
However, non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR7.11mn compared with net buyers of QR5.52mn a week ago.
Foreign institutions’ net buying shrank influentially to QR121.23mn against QR246.28mn the week ended September 27.
Total trade volume fell 12% to 28.61mn shares, value by 16% to QR1.03bn and transactions by 16% to 14,861 this week.
The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 44% to 0.96mn equities, value by 44% to QR36.49mn and deals by 36% to 412.
The banks and financial sector saw 33% plunge in trade volume to 7.49mn stocks, 40% in value to QR328.35mn and 33% in transactions to 4,651.
The real estate sector’s trade volume tanked 24% to 4.36mn shares, value by 27% to QR76.12mn and deals by 25% to 2,162.
The telecom sector reported 24% shrinkage in trade volume to 1.58mn equities, 33% in value to QR26.56mn and 11% in transactions to 920.
However, the transport sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.82mn stocks and value also more than doubled to QR59.78mn on 15% jump in deals to 981.
There was 8% expansion in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 9.66mn shares, 32% in value to QR321.77mn and 16% in transactions to 4,124.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume was up 1% to 1.73mn equities, whereas value declined 10% to QR181.82mn and deals by 9% to 1,611.
