07/02/2015 06:58 AST
Corporate earnings and strengthened oil prices lent bullish fervour to the Qatar Stock Exchange, which gained a whopping 621 points during the week.
Foreign institutions were brisk buyers, amidst their reduced exposure, during the week that saw Industries Qatar (IQ) subsidiary Qatar Fertiliser Company award a six-year, long-term service contract to an arm of GE Oil and Gas to help optimise the performance of its plant in Mesaieed.
Real estate and industrial stocks saw above average buying pressure during the week that saw world oil prices gain on the back of unrest in Libya and expected increased demand from China.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining much faster than the other investment classes during the week that saw QSE aver that it is keen on cooperating and empowering partnership in a world of strong alliances, financial crises, and unstable regional circumstances.
Crude oil prices, however, remains 50% lower from their highs in 2014 and market views that oil may trade around $60-70 a barrel in the short to medium term.
“Oil (futures) market is witnessing spasmodic changes, which will have its reflection in the Gulf shores because of the weightage of hydrocarbons in the respective economies. Back home, corporate results are also playing their role,” an analyst with a brokerage firm told Gulf Times.
The fact that government has been reiterating the firmness in capex for infrastructure development is giving a bullish outlook to those sectors that have a direct bearing in with such expenditure, he said.
Real estate stocks appreciated 11.66%, followed by industrials (6.56%), banks and financial services (4.51%), transport (4.23%), consumer goods (3.31%), telecom (3.11%) and insurance (0.02%) during the week that saw a Credit Agricole economist view that crude is likely to remain weak in the short to medium term but it is an opportunity for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to undertake structural reforms.
The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 5.89%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 5.65% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 8.76% during the week that featured International Monetary Fund paper say that oil export losses in 2015 are expected to reach $300bn or 21 percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Gulf, leading to fiscal deficit.
Of the 43 stocks, 36 gained, while only seven declined. All of the nine industrials; eight off the 12 banks and financial services; seven of the eight consumer goods; four each of the five insurers and the four realty; all of the three transport and one of the two telecom stocks closed higher during the week.
About 84% of the stocks were in the positive terrain with major gainers being Ezdan, Barwa, United Development Company, Mazaya Qatar, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Industries Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, International Islamic, Dlala, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf Warehousing, Milaha, Nakilat and Vodafone Qatar; while QNB and Ooredoo notably bucked the trend during the week.
Market capitalisation expanded 4.2% or more than QR27bn to QR676.06bn.
Foreign institutions’ net buying soared to QR144.35mn compared to QR85.09mn the previous week.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking sunk to QR43.9mn against QR97.65mn the week ended January 29.
Local retail investors turned net sellers to the tune of QR30.56mn compared with net buyers of QR22.08mn the previous week.
Non-Qatari retail investors’ net selling surged to QR69.89mn against QR9.32mn the week ended January 29.
A total of 91.69mn shares valued at QR3.51bn changed hands across 40,426 transactions.
The real estate sector saw a total of 37.11mn equities worth QR938.7mn change hands across 10,976 deals.
The banks and financial sector witnessed as many as 19.12mn stocks valued at QR1.01bn change hands across 11,226 transactions.
Gulf Times
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