Heavy demand, especially for the Islamic equities, dotted the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) this week, which also saw its chief executive sound optimistic on achieving the ‘developed’ market tag from the present ‘emerging’ status.
Domestic institutions were seen extending strong buying support this week which saw the Qatar Financial Market Authority give approval to the QSE’s amendments in rulebook relating to market makers and liquidity providers.
Trading volume, value and deals were seen more than doubling this week as the previous week had only two trading sessions in view of the Eid holidays.
The industrials and consumer goods counters witnessed higher than average demand this week which saw Mazaya Qatar enter into an agreement with Ariane Real Estate in developing a part of the mixed development project coming up in Mesaimeer.
The Gulf individuals and Arab funds were also seen bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index shot up 2.03% this week which saw Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding (MPHC) report QR135mn net profit in the first half (H1) of this year.
An across the board buying was visible this week which saw Gulf International Services’ (GIS) H1 2020 net profit at QR54mn.
Foreign funds’ weakened net selling also had its influence on the market this week which saw Ezdan report net profit of QR172mn in H1 2020.
However, local retail investors were increasingly net profit takers this week which saw Mannai Corporation report net loss of QR203mn in H1 2020.
More than 57% of the traded constituents extended gains this week which saw Nakilat assume full ship management and operations of Q-Flex LNG (liquefied natural gas) carrier Al Sadd from Shell.
The Total Return Index gained 2.03%, the All Share Index 1.62% and Al Rayan Islamic Index 3.68% this week which saw the country’s producer price index increase 7.8% month-on-month in June.
Market capitalisation saw about QR9bn or 1.56% increase to QR559.34bn, mainly on large and midcap segments this week which saw as many as 165,181 Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund QATR valued at QR355,845 changed hands across 21 transactions.
The industrials index shot up 5.59%, consumer goods and services (3.64%), real estate (1.77%), transport (1.42%), telecom (1.07%), insurance (0.27%) and banks and financial services (0.23%) this week which saw a total of 83,261 Doha Bank-sponsored QETF worth QR773,952 traded across 23 deals.
Major gainers included Qatar German Company for Medical Devices, QIIB, Qamco, Industries Qatar, Gulf Warehousing, Masraf Al Rayan, MPHC, Aamal Company, Qatar National Cement, Qatar Electricity and Water, GIS, Doha Insurance, Barwa, Vodafone Qatar and Milaha; even as Qatar First Bank, Qatari Investors Group, Dlala, Commercial Bank and Baladna were among the losers this week which saw banking and industrials sectors together account for about 56% of total trading volume.
Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase this week which saw the industrials sector account for 31% of the total trading volume, banks and financial services (27%), consumer goods and services (21%), real estate (14%), telecom (3%), and transport and insurance (2% each) this week.
In value, the banks and financial sector’s share was 36%, consumer goods and services (23%), industrials (21%), realty (9%), transport (5%), telecom (4%) and insurance (2%) this week.
Domestic funds’ net buying increased significantly to QR123.81mn compared to QR87.76mn the week ended August 6.
The Gulf institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR7.41mn against net sellers of QR5.71mn the previous week.
The Arab institutions were net buyers to the extent of QR0.37mn compared with net sellers of QR0.13mn a week ago.
Foreign funds’ net profit booking declined influentially to QR33.79mn against QR73.34mn the week ended August 6.
However, Qatari individuals’ net selling grew substantially to QR83.92mn compared to QR13.55mn the previous week.
Foreign individuals’ net selling strengthened drastically to QR6.1mn against QR0.58mn a week ago.
The Gulf individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR4.58mn compared with net sellers of QR0.39mn the week ended August 6.
The Arab individuals were net profit takers to the extent of QR3.49mn against net buyers of QR5.81mn the previous week.
Total trading volume more than doubled to 1.2bn shares, value more than doubled to QR2.18bn and transactions also more than doubled to 46,443.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 366.41mn equities and value also more than tripled to QR454.18mn on more than doubled deals to 10,796.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 166.67mn stocks and value almost tripled to QR199.58mn on almost tripled transactions to 6,555.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 249.88mn shares and value tripled to QR494.68mn on more than doubled deals to 8,680.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 325.23mn equities and value almost doubled to QR788.55mn on 58% jump in transactions to 13,172.
The telecom sector saw 82% surge in trade volume to 38.83mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR898.62mn and deals almost tripled to 3,464.
The transport sector’s trade volume soared 42% to 29.04mn shares, value by 29% to QR106.55mn and transactions by 82% to 2,351.
However, there was a 7% decline in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 24.82mn equities and 14% in value to QR46.27mn but on more than doubled deals to 1,425.
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