The Qatar Stock Exchange witnessed robust buying support from the foreign and domestic funds, although it settled lower this week, which otherwise saw the US hinting at diffusing the Middle East crisis.
Telecom, transport, consumer goods and industrials witnessed higher than average selling pressure this week which saw global oil price pace gain traction due to the US-Iran stand-off.
Local and non-Qatari retail investors were increasingly into profit booking as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.64% lower this week which saw as many as 10,000 sovereign bonds valued at QR99.77mn change hands across one transaction.
More than 67% of the traded constituents were in the red this week which saw a total of 129,000 treasury bills valued at QR1.29bn trade across two deals.
Market capitalisation saw about QR4bn or 0.67% decline to QR581.42bn mainly on large and small cap segments this week which saw Islamic stocks decline faster than the conventional entities.
Six of the seven sectors were under selling pressure this week which saw a total of 108,979 Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded funds QATR valued at QR248,415 traded across 17 transactions.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase this week which saw as many as 1,308 Doha Bank sponsored QETF valued at QR12,643 changed hands across nine deals.
The Total Return Index declined 0.64%; Al Rayyan Islamic Index 1.19% and All Share Index 0.56% this week which saw the benchmark touch a low of below 10,300 levels.
The telecom index plummeted 2.93%, transport (2.2%), consumer goods (1.99%), industrials (1.08%), insurance (0.99%) and real estate (0.51%); while banks and financial services was up 0.12% this week which saw banking, realty, industrials and consumer goods accounted for more than 86% of the total volume.
Major losers included Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Nakilat, Gulf Warehousing, Milaha, QIIB, Qatar First Bank, Woqod, Qatar National Cement, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ezdan, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Salam International Investment; while Doha Bank, Industries Qatar, Al Meera, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Mazaya Qatar and Barwa were among the gainers this week.
Qatari investors’ net selling increased significantly to QR138.3mn against QR12mn the week ended January 2.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profit booking grew considerably to QR25.98mn compared to QR0.58mn a week ago.
However, foreign funds’ net buying strengthened substantially to QR151.59mn against QR21.11mn the previous week.
Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR12.81mn compared with net sellers of QR8.65mn a week ago.
The banks and financial services sector accounted for 31% of total volume, realty (20%), industrials (19%), consumer goods (17%), telecom (6%), transport (5%) and insurance (3%) this week.
In terms of value, banks and financial services’ share stood at 51% of the total, consumer goods (15%), industrials (13%), real estate (8%), telecom (6%), transport (5%) and insurance (2%) this week.
Total trade volume grew 41% to 403.44mn shares; value grew 3% to QR1.19bn and transactions by 79% to 30,104.
The consumer goods’ trade volume more than tripled to 69.56mn equities and value soared 77% to QR172.59mn on more than doubled deals to 7,342.
There was 50% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 23.31mn stocks and 28% in value to QR70.75mn on more than doubled transactions to 2,731.
The real estate sector’s trade volume shot up 39% to 78.89mn shares and value by 15% to QR95.13mn on almost doubled deals to 2,687.
The industrials’ sector reported 31% expansion in trade volume to 75.46mn equities but on 21% fall in value to QR155.06mn despite 39% higher transactions at 4,990.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume increased 26% to 124.58mn stocks, while value was down 3% to QR606.04mn despite 57% higher deals at 10,012.
The transport sector saw 10% jump in trade volume to 18.24mn shares, 17% in value to QR57.35mn and 53% in transactions to 1,204.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume declined 24% to 13.39mn equities and value by 38% to QR29.2mn, whereas deals grew 89% to 1,138.
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