Foreign institutions’ substantially stronger buying interests lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange benchmark by more than 542 points and about QR30bn in capitalisation this week.

Robust buying, especially within the banking counter, gave the necessary thrust to the Qatar’s bourse to inch towards the 10,300 points altitude this week which saw the country’s trade surplus amount to QR13.12bn in April this year.

However, the market witnessed increased selling pressure from domestic funds as well as local and non-Qatari retail investors this week which saw Capital Intelligence (CI), an international credit rating agency, affirm the long-term foreign currency rating (LT FCR) and short-term foreign currency rating of QNB at ‘AA-’ and ‘A1+’, respectively.

Blue chips were seen high in demand, thus driving the 20-stock Qatar Index up about 6% this week which also saw CI affirm the LT FCR of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) at ‘A+’

Islamic stocks were however seen gaining slower than the other indices in the bourses this week which witnessed as many as 9,287 Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund QATR valued at QR0.22mn trade across eight deals.

Market capitalisation shot up 5.55% to QR568.08bn on large, mid and small cap segments this week which saw a total of 29,051 Doha Bank sponsored QETF valued at QR2.88mn across 23 transactions.

More than 68% of the traded constituents extended gains with major movers being QNB, QIB, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, QIIB, Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar, Barwa, Ooredoo, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing and Milaha; even as Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ezdan, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar, Dlala, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Mannai Corporation and Dlala were among the losers this week.

The Total Return Index soared 5.58%, Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) 3.63% and All Share Index 5.21% this week which saw real estate and industrials sectors accounted for more than 80% of the total trade volume.

The banks and financial services index zoomed 10.37%, transport (3.03%), telecom (1.78%), industrials (1.36%) and insurance (0.23%); whereas realty and consumer goods declined 1.35% and 0.08% respectively this week.

The real estate sector accounted for 52% of the total volume, industrials (28%), banks and financial services (11%), consumer goods (4%), telecom (2%), and transport and insurance (1% each) this week.

In terms of value, industrials’ share was 31%, banks and financial services and consumer goods (24% each), realty (17%), transport (3%), and telecom, transport and insurance (1% each) this week.

Foreign institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR907.84mn against QR126.51mn a week ago.

However, domestic funds’ net selling grew significantly to QR668.73mn compared to QR50.57mn the previous week.

Non-Qataris’ net profit booking strengthened considerably to QR133.45mn against QR3.57mn the week ended May 23.

Local retail investors’ net selling rose noticeably to QR105.17mn compared to QR72.19mn a week ago.

Total trade volume almost tripled to 202.66mn shares and value also almost tripled to QR4.96bn on 50% increase in transactions to 68,041 this week.

The real estate sector’s trade volume grew almost seven–fold to 105.16mn equities and value by almost five-fold to QR826.65mn on more than doubled deals to 32,084.

The banks and financial sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 23.06mn stocks and value more than tripled to QR1.21bn on 77% growth in transactions to 10,548.

The insurance sector’s trade volume almost doubled to 2.06mn shares and value more than doubled to QR64.55mn on 37% jump in deals to 1,104.

The industrials sector reported 65% surge in trade volume to 57.31mn equities and 88% in value to QR1.54bn but on 10% fall in transactions to 14,822.

The telecom sector’s trade volume soared 61% to 4.31mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR73.3mn, while deals were down 2% to 1,848.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume shot up 59% to 8.17mn shares and value more than tripled to QR1.19bn on almost doubled transactions to 6,540.

There was a 4% expansion in the transport sector’s trade volume to 2.58mn equities and 5% in value to QR60.57mn but on 19% fall in deals to 1,095.

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