Banks, industries lift DSM despite profit-booking

Qatar’s bourse gained 3.54% in the week ended Thursday despite stock-specific profit-booking of three days. The gains were supported mainly by banking and industrial sectors.

Rising oil prices lent support to certain underlying equities as the 20-stock benchmark Qatar Share Index added 224 points to 6,540.32 in the review week that saw Qatar Central Bank Governor HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani saying that Qatar’s economy is poised to grow above 7% and inflation would in “single” digit this year.

Notable movers were Commercialbank, Masraf Al Rayan, Doha Bank, Industries Qatar (IQ), Barwa and Qatar Islamic Insurance in the week that also saw Qatar’s two major financial institutions expressing interest in establishing a base in France to offer Islamic finance.

However, First Finance, Qatar Electricity and Water, Nakilat and Qatar Technical Inspection came under selling pressure.

Foreign institutional investors continued to impart bullish momentum to the Doha Securities Market, which is now down 5.02% year-to-date.

Insurance and lenders stocks have plunged 18.11% and 11.73% year-to-date, while services and industries gained 7.87% and 4.79% respectively.

Higher oil price, coupled with attractive valuation, led to a bullish run in the market, which provided a fertile ground for the investors to book profit, an analyst said.

Trading volumes fell, notably in the services sector, in the week in which a Rasmala Investments report said Qatar’s bourse is expected to remain positive notably on stronger economy and lower inflationary pressures.

Qatari retail and institutional investors were seen profit-takers in the week that saw Barwa clearing one more hurdle in acquiring the First Finance Company as the latter’s board in-principle approved the deal.

Maximum buying was seen in the industrial sector, whose index zoomed 5.84%, followed by banks and financial institution (4.79%) and insurance (3.77%), while that of services pared 1.06%.

Of the 43 stocks, 22 gained and 21 fell in the review week that saw Ezdan Real Estate Company appointing Deloitte & Touche as its advisor for the proposed merger with privately-held Group of International Housing Company.

Seven of the nine lenders, one of the five insurers, five of the seven industries and nine of the 22 services stocks closed higher in the week that saw Qatar Islamic Bank affiliate QInvest announce the launch of a $250mn private equity fund and another sector-specific fund as well as two other funds by the third quarter of this year.

In line with an overall bearish run, market capitalisation rose 1.30% or about QR4bn to QR272.21bn as large cap stocks gained 0.94%, mid cap 0.67%, small cap 0.54%, while micro cap lost 0.12%.

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