The Qatar Stock Exchange witnessed its key index near 10,000 points intra-week but overall it could not sustain the bullish momentum as it settled in the negative this week.

Increased net selling by domestic funds and lower net buying interests from foreign counterparts led to the overall bearish run on the bourse this week which saw Finance Minister HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi vouch that Qatar’s 2019 budget would see surplus amidst moderate oil price, spending.
Transport, banking and insurance counters witnessed higher-than-average profit booking this week which also saw Finance Minister indicate that Doha’s continued capital spending despite projects relating to 2022 nearing completion.
Small and midcap segments came under heavy selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.41% this week which saw QNB Group, the largest financial institution in the Middle East and Africa, report an impressive 6% yearly growth in net profit to QR10.8bn in the first nine months of this year.
Islamic stocks were seen declining slower than the other indices in the market, which however made 15.7% gains year-to-date.
There was weakened net selling from local and non-Qatari retail investors this week which saw a total of 181,206 sovereign bonds valued at QR1.81bn change hands across seven deals.
Notwithstanding marginal gains in the microcaps, market capitalisation shed more than QR2bn or 0.36% to QR551.66bn this week which saw Vodafone Qatar halved its capital base to QR4.23bn by way of reducing the nominal value of shares to QR5 from QR10.
On a year-to-date basis, both large and midcap segments were seen appreciating 23.58% and 13.09% respectively.
The market witnessed a total volume of 13,713 QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR0.32mn trade across 27 transactions and as many as 6,890 QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR0.68mn change hands across 18 deals this week which saw no trading of treasury bills.
The Total Return Index shrank 0.41%, All Share Index by 0.33% and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.14% this week which saw Nakilat and Barwa dominate trading ring in terms of volume and value.
The transport index declined 1.16%, banks and financial services (0.77%), insurance (0.75%) and industrials (0.13%); whereas realty gained 0.84%, consumer goods (0.55%) and telecom (0.08%) this week which saw global insurance rating agency A M Best affirm the financial strength rating of 'A-' (Excellent) and long-term issuer credit rating of “a-” on Doha Insurance with "stable" outlook.
About 63% of the traded stocks were in the red with major losers being Ahlibank, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Nakilat, Qatar First Bank, Alijarah Holding, Salam International Investment, Qatari Investors Group and Qatar Insurance; while Dlala, Barwa, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Al Meera and Zad Holding were among the gainers this week which saw banking, industrials and real estate stocks constitute more than 68% of the total trading volume.
The banks and financial services sector constituted 28% of the total volume, industrials (21%), real estate (19%), transport (14%), telecom (10%), consumer goods (5%) and insurance (3%); while in terms of trade turnover, banking sector’s share was 34% in the total, industrials (23%), consumer goods (16%), realty (12%), transport (8%), telecom (4%) and insurance (3%) this week.
Domestic institutions’ net selling increased significantly to QR32.82mn compared to QR17.83mn the previous week.
Foreign institutions’ net buying weakened considerably to QR67.95mn against QR121.23mn the week ended October 4.
However, local retail investors’ net profit booking declined perceptibly to QR28.06mn compared to QR96.29mn a week ago.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net selling also declined but marginally to QR7.07mn against QR7.11mn the previous week.
Total trade volume fell 28% to 20.69mn shares, value by 28% to QR744.28mn and transactions by 15% to 12,655 this week.
The industrials sector’s trade volume plummeted 55% to 4.37mn equities, value by 46% to QR173.33mn and deals by 26% to 3,070.
The consumer goods sector reported 45% plunge in trade volume to 0.96mn stocks, 33% in value to QR121.02mn and 20% in transactions to 1,286.
The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 36% to 0.61mn shares, value by 41% to QR21.39mn and deals by 24% to 314.
The banks and financial sector saw 22% shrinkage in trade volume to 5.83mn equities, 24% in value to QR250mn and 19% in transactions to 3,755.
The real estate sector’s trade volume declined 11% to 3.88mn stocks, while value grew 12% to QR84.88mn despite 4% lower deals at 2,065.
However, the telecom sector witnessed 37% surge in trade volume to 2.17mn shares, 21% in value to QR32.03mn and 7% in transactions to 983.
The transport sector’s trade volume was up 1% to 2.86mn equities, value by 3% to QR61.62mn and deals by 20% to 1,182.