The cabinet reshuffle had a profound effect in lifting the overall sentiments in the Qatar Stock Exchange, which inched near 10,400 levels this week.
Foreign institutions’ substantially strengthened buying interests were visible this week which saw Qatar’s maritime sector remain strong, amidst embargo, as Hamad Port witnessed a robust 76% year-on-year growth in net tonnage to 2.53mn tonnes in September this year.
Notwithstanding the bearish outlook of non-Qatari individuals, the 20-stock Qatar Index gained 87 points or 0.85% this week which saw QTerminals, in which Milaha has 49% stake and is the operator of the first phase of Hamad Port, and China Harbour Engineering Company, announce their intent to jointly explore potential maritime investment opportunities around the world.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining faster than the main index in the market, which showed about 22% gains year-to-date.
There was increased net selling by local retail investors and domestic funds this week which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
Market capitalisation expanded about QR3bn or 0.51% to QR581.46bn this week mainly on account of large and midcaps.
The market witnessed a total volume of 23,103 QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR0.55mn trade across 44 transactions and as many as 16,550 QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR1.68mn change hands across 24 deals this week which saw QSE’s move to introduce a new electronic system to assist listed companies in producing unified disclosure format.
The Total Return Index gained 0.85%, Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.92% and All Share Index by 0.83% this week which saw a Standard and Poor’s report that the Gulf sovereigns' cumulative funding needs will be around $300bn in 2018-21, which is slated to be met through 70:30 debt asset proportion.
The realty index soared 4.11%, consumer goods (3.59%), telecom (2.98%), industrials (0.05%) and transport (0.03%); while insurance declined 0.59% and banks and financial services 0.11% this week.
More than 53% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Ooredoo, Ezdan, United Development Company, Barwa, Woqod, Al Meera, Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, al khaliji, Dlala and Nakilat; while QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Qatar First Bank, Aamal Company, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Vodafone Qatar were among the losers this week which saw banking and real estate stocks constitute more than 59% of the total trading volume.
The banks and financial services constituted 33% of the total volume, realty (26%), industrials (14%), telecom (12%), transport (8%), consumer goods (4%) and insurance (3%); while in terms of trade turnover, banking sector’s share was 44% in the total, industrials (16%), realty (14%), consumer goods (11%), telecom (8%), transport (4%) and insurance (2%) this week.
Foreign institutions’ net buying increased considerably to QR359.38mn compared to QR232.03mn the previous week.
However, local retail investors’ net profit booking grew substantially to QR266.79mn against QR221.79mn a week ago.
Domestic funds’ net selling strengthened significantly to QR80.41mn compared to QR13.32mn the week ended November 1.
Non-Qatari individual investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR12.06mn against net buyers of QR3.58mn the previous week.
Total trade volume rose 14% to 29.18mn shares, value by 11% to QR1.1bn and transactions by 31% to 19,972 this week.
The market saw 73% surge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 7.73mn equities, 89% in value to QR154.76mn and 77% in deals to 3,480.
The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 35% to 3.64mn stocks, value by 55% to QR92.57mn and transactions by 90% to 2,374.
The consumer goods sector reported 34% expansion in trade volume to 1.19mn shares to more than double value to QR119.37mn on 74% growth in deals to 1,894.
The transport sector’s trade volume grew 9% to 2.32mn equities, whereas value was down 5% to QR49.14mn and transactions by 9% to 1,534.
There was 6% rise in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.73mn stocks but on 5% fall in value to QR22.11mn despite 43% higher deals at 545.
However, the industrials sector’s trade volume declined 14% to 4.05mn shares and value by 4% to QR178.13mn, while transactions were up 3% 3,451.
The banks and financial sector saw 5% shrinkage in trade volume to 9.51mn equities and 9% in value to QR490.03mn but on 21% jump in deals to 6,694.


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