Severe selling in the telecom and consumer goods led to a 142-point decline in the Qatar Stock Exchange this week which saw Doha present QR4.3bn surplus budget for 2019.
Domestic institutions were increasingly bearish and there was substantially weakened buying interests of their foreign counterparts this week which saw Qatar decide to establish a general tax authority.
Telecom and consumer goods counters saw higher than average selling pressure as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 1.34% lower this week which saw Qatar ruling out the introduction of value added tax in 2019.
Three of the five days were under profit booking pressure this week which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
About 82% of the stocks were in the red with major losers being Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Doha Bank, Alijarah Holding, Salam International Investment, Aamal Company, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Mazaya Qatar and Milaha; even as Nakilat, Ezdan and Qatar Insurance were among gainers this week.
Islamic stocks were seen declining faster than the other indices in the market, which saw about 1% erosion in market capitalisation to QR589.635bn this week.
The market witnessed a total volume of 1,028 QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR0.03mn trade across nine transactions and as many as 1,671 QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR0.17mn change hands across seven deals this week.
The Total Return Index shed 1.34%, All Share Index by 1.14% and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 1.64% this week which saw banks and real estate segment together account for about 62% of total trade volume.
The telecom index plummeted 4.4%, consumer goods (1.6%), transport (1.33%), banks and financial services (1.14%) and industrials (0.97%); even as insurance and realty gained 1.98% and 0.07% respectively this week.
The banks and financial services constituted 43% of the total volume, realty (19%), industrials (11%), telecom (10%), transport (9%), consumer goods (5%) and insurance (2%); while in terms of trade turnover, banks and financial sector’s share was 48%, industrials (16%), real estate (12%), consumer goods (8%), telecom and transport (7% each), and insurance (3%) this week.
Domestic funds’ net profit booking increased considerably to QR48.64mn compared to QR11.29mn the previous week.
Foreign institutions’ net buying declined significantly to QR55.01mn against QR234.67mn a week ago.
However, Qataris net selling plunged to QR14.82mn compared to QR203.69mn the week ended November 29.
Non-Qatari individuals were net buyers to the tune of QR8.46mn against net sellers of QR19.82mn the previous week.
Total trade volume fell 27% to 31.17mn shares, value by 30% to QR871.73mn and transactions by 26% to 18,359 this week.
The real estate sector reported 51% plunge in trade volume to 5.92mn equities, 51% in value to QR102.88mn and 45% in deals to 3,347.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 37% to 3.23mn stocks and value by 23% to QR58.41mn, while transactions were up 2% to 1,767.
The industrials sector saw 27% shrinkage in trade volume to 3.53mn shares, 26% in value to QR136.9mn and 11% in deals to 3,016.
The banks and financial sector’s trade volume tanked 15% to 13.4mn equities, value by 31% to QR421.61mn and transactions by 31% to 7,102.
There was 2% decline in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 1.69mn stocks, 26% in value to QR67.17mn and 19% in deals to 1,221.
The transport sector’s trade volume was down 2% to 2.65mn shares, value by 6% to QR58.82mn and transactions by 12% to 1,117.
However, the insurance sector saw 29% surge in trade volume to 0.76mn equities, value by 17% to QR25.94mn and deals by 36% to 789.

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