More than 65% of the equities were in the red on the Qatar Stock Exchange, leading its key barometer settle at sub-10,200 levels this week, which saw Qatar Central Bank aver that the country’s banking system capable of facing risks.
Of the seven sectors, four of them witnessed moderate to severe profit booking pressure this week which saw the QR2.73bn initial public offering of yet-to-be formed Qatar Aluminum Manufacturing Company planning to hit the market on October 30, offering 49% to citizens.
Telecom, consumer goods, insurance and industrials witnessed higher than average selling pressure this week which saw the market heavyweight Industries Qatar report a net profit of QR3.8bn in the first nine months of this year.
Microcap segments saw moderate selling as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.39% lower this week which saw the country's largest risk cover provider Qatar Insurance Group decide not to go ahead with the proposed buyback of shares.
Islamic stocks were seen declining faster than the main index on the market, which however showed 19.12% gains year-to-date.
Non-Qatari funds’ buying interests were seen weakening this week which saw as many as 90,350 sovereign bonds valued at QR903.5mn trade across three deals.
Market capitalisation expanded about QR1bn or 0.17% to QR570.12bn this week mainly on account of large caps. On a year-to-date basis, both large and midcap segments were seen appreciating 27.53% and 15.84% respectively.
The market witnessed a total volume of 5,271 QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR0.12mn trade across 24 transactions and as many as 6,192 QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR0.62mn change hands across 16 deals this week which saw the country’s banking sector’s total assets grow 4% to QR1.4trn by the end of September 2018.
The Total Return Index shrank 0.39% and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.97%, while All Share Index was up 0.12% this week which saw Mazaya Qatar dominate trading ring in terms of volume and value.
The telecom index tanked 3.27%, consumer goods (2.95%), insurance (1.75%) and industrials (1.74%); while transport gained 1.98%, banks and financial services (1.52%) and realty (1.05%) this week which saw Qatar Insurance Group report 6% year-on-year growth in gross written premiums to QR9.5bn.
Major losers included Qatar First Bank, Widam Food, Qatar Oman Investment, Dlala, Al Khaleej Takaful, Doha Bank, Alijarah Holding, Industries Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Gulf International Services and Qatar Insurance; while Milaha, Qatar National Cement, Commercial Bank, QNB and QIIB were among the gainers this week which saw real estate and banking stocks constitute more than 57% of the total trading volume.
The realty sector constituted 30% of the total volume, banks and financial services (27%), transport and industrials (13% each), telecom (12%), and insurance and consumer goods (2% each); while in terms of trade turnover, banking sector’s share was 41% in the total, industrials (20%), realty (13%), transport (12%), telecom (7%), consumer goods (6%) and insurance (2%) this week.
Foreign institutions’ net buying weakened considerably to QR134.69mn compared to QR172.08mn the previous week.
Domestic institutions’ net buying declined marginally to QR2.57mn against QR2.79mn the week ended October 18.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking fell influentially to QR140.69mn compared to QR165.81mn a week ago.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR3.62mn against net sellers of QR9.16mn the previous week.
Total trade volume rose 5% to 32.68mn shares, while value fell 4% to QR952.54mn and transactions by 12% to 17,726 this week.
The transport sector’s trade volume almost tripled to 4.4mn equities and value more than doubled to QR111.22mn on 59% surge in deals to 2,191.
The banks and financial sector saw 14% surge in trade volume to 8.92mn stocks and 10% in value to QR389.96mn but on 2% fall in transactions to 6,180.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 48% to 0.62mn shares, value by 58% to QR54.81mn and deals by 49% to 1,043.
The telecom sector reported 11% plunge in trade volume to 3.87mn equities but on 4% growth in value to QR62.19mn despite 4% lower transactions at 1,538.
The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 10% to 4.41mn stocks, value by 20% to QR190.53mn and deals by 28% to 3,067.
The market saw 7% decline in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 9.73mn shares, value by 7% to QR121.53mn and 20% in transactions to 3,124.
Although the insurance sector’s trade volume was flat at 0.73mn equities, there was 15% shrinkage in value to QR22.3mn and 23% in deals to 583.
