Increased buying interests of foreign institutions kept up the bullish momentum in the Qatar Stock Exchange, which once crossed the 10,300 levels this week.

Banking sector witnessed higher than average demand this week which saw Qatar Inc display robust resiliency to the continuing economic blockade by the quartet as the listed companies' cumulative net earnings exhibited marked improvement year-on-year during the nine-month ended September.
Notwithstanding the bearish outlook of domestic funds and increased net selling by local retail investors, the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 128 points or 1.26% this week which saw the soon-to-be listed Qatar Aluminium Manufacturing Company disclose that Qatalum, which seeks to limit cash cost to $120 per metric tonne by 2021, is planning to enhance sales revenue by focusing on selling value-added products.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining slower than the main index in the market, which showed 20.62% gains year-to-date.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ buying interests were seen weakening this week which saw no trading of sovereign bonds and treasury bills.
Market capitalisation expanded more than QR8bn or 1.47% to QR578.52bn this week mainly on account of large caps. On a year-to-date basis, both large and midcap segments were seen appreciating 30.77% and 15.88% respectively.
The market witnessed a total volume of 1,991 QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR0.05mn trade across 11 transactions and as many as 26,279 QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR2.63mn change hands across 23 deals this week which saw Qatar's industrial producers' earnings witnessed double-digit expansion in September 2018 on strong prices, especially for crude, refined petroleum products, basic chemicals, dairy products and paper.
The Total Return Index gained 1.26%, Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.67% and All Share Index by 1.28% this week which saw Barwa and Nakilat dominate trading ring in terms of volume and value.
The banks and financial services index expanded 2.95%, realty (1.17%), telecom (0.71%), insurance (0.33%) and consumer goods (0.31%); while transport and industrials fell 2.45% and 0.75% respectively this week which saw Doha's inward foreign investments report a 5% year-on-year jump to QR682.3bn during the second quarter of this year.
Major gainers included Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Insurance, Doha Bank, Al Khaliji, QNB, Barwa, Ooredoo, QIIB, Woqod, Widam Food and Mannai Corporation; even as Gulf International Services, Salam International Investment, Milaha, Dlala, Commercial Bank, Islamic Holding Group, Qatar National Cement and Vodafone Qatar were among the losers this week which saw banking, industrials and real estate stocks constitute more than three-fourth of the total trading volume.
The banks and financial services constituted 39% of the total volume, industrials (18%), realty (17%), telecom (11%), transport (8%), and consumer goods and insurance (3% each); while in terms of trade turnover, banking sector’s share was 54% in the total, industrials (19%), realty (8%), consumer goods and telecom (6% each), transport (5%) and insurance (2%) this week.
Foreign institutions’ net buying increased considerably to QR232.03mn compared to QR134.69mn the previous week.
However, local retail investors’ net profit booking grew influentially to QR321.79mn against QR140.69mn a week ago.
Domestic funds turned net sellers to the tune of QR13.32mn compared with net buyers of QR2.57mn the week ended October 25.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying weakened marginally to QR3.58mn against QR3.62mn the previous week.
Total trade volume fell 22% to 25.58mn shares, while value rose 4% to QR994.14mn despite 14% lower transactions at 15,264 this week.
The market saw 54% plunge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 4.46mn equities, 33% in value to QR81.72mn and 37% in deals to 1,967.
The transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 52% to 2.12mn stocks, value by 53% to QR51.9mn and transactions by 23% to 1,686.
The telecom sector reported 30% shrinkage in trade volume to 2.69mn shares, value by 4% to QR59.83mn and deals by 19% to 1,252.
The insurance sector’s trade volume was down 5% to 0.69mn equities, while value grew 5% to QR22.32mn despite 35% lower transactions at 381.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 44% to 0.89mn stocks, value by 1% to QR55.51mn and deals by 4% to 1,087.
The banks and financial sector saw 13% surge in trade volume to 10.04mn shares and 38% in value to QR536.74mn but on 10% fall in transactions to 5,543.
The industrials sector’s trade volume expanded 6% to 4.69mn equities, whereas value was down 3% to QR185.12mn despite 9% higher deals at 3,348.

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