Profit-booking drags Doha bourse down; real estate index tanks 2.2%

Qatar Exchange was on a weak wicket during the week despite buying support from local retail and institutions.

Profit-booking, especially in realty, telecom and industrials, saw the QE Index (based on price data) lose 0.66% in the week that saw Dubai, Kuwait, Muscat and Bahrain bourses fall 1.69%, 1.15%, 1.06% and 0.1%; while Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi gained 0.58% and 0.09%, respectively.

However, the Doha bourse has shrunk year-to-date (ytd) 6.29% vis-à-vis Muscat’s fall of 5.4%, Bahrain (2.61%) and Kuwait (1.16%); while Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi gained 11.56%, 3.88% and 2.83%, respectively.

Large, mid and small cap equities came under selling pressure in the week that saw Qatari bourse launch new data services for enabling investors to take informed decision.

The real estate index tanked 2.21%, telecom (1.75%), industrials (1.16%), transport (0.42%) and banks and financial services (0.01%); while the indices of insurance and consumer goods gained 1.14% and 1.07% respectively in the week.

The indices of transport and real estate have lost ytd 10.97% and 3.97%; whereas those of consumer goods, telecom, insurance, industrials and banks and financial services gained 29.08%, 11.88%, 10.38%, 5.93% and 1.35% respectively.

Of the 42 stocks; only 12 advanced, while 21 declined and nine were unchanged.

Market capitalisation was down 0.87% QR451.22bn with large, mid and small cap equities notably melting 0.63%, 0.60% and 0.23% respectively; while micro caps gained 2.59% in the week.

Mid and large cap equities have fallen ytd 7.09% and 6.12%; whereas micro and small caps gained 19.92% and 4.84% respectively.

Foreign institutions were increasingly profit takers as their net buying zoomed to 13.94% from 4.26% the previous week. Their net selling amounted to QR109.29mn.

A lower 8.93% of them bought equities compared to 19.25% the week ended July 19 and a marginally lower 22.87% of them offloaded against 23.51%.

Domestic institutions were increasingly bullish as their net selling surged to 9.85% from 4.39% the previous week. Their net buying was QR77.22mn.

A higher 19.82% of them were into buying against 16.03% the week ended July 19 while a lower 9.97% were into selling compared to 11.64%.

Qatari individual investors’ bullish grip strengthened as net buying rose to 3.28% from 0.13% the previous week. Their net buying amounted to QR25.71mn.

A higher 52.58% of them were into buying compared to 48.04% the week ended July 19 and a higher 49.30% of them were into selling against 47.91%.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned bullish as they were net buyers to the tune of 0.81% compared with net sellers of 0.27% the previous week. Their net selling was QR6.35mn.

A higher 18.67% of them purchased stocks against 16.67% the week ended July 19 and a marginally higher 17.86% of them sold compared to 16.94%.

Total trading volume shrank 5% to 23.12mn shares and value by 1% to QR783.97mn but transactions rose 1% to 13,525 in the week.

In terms of volume, the realty sector accounted for 32.5% of the total, followed by banks and financial services (25.10%), consumer goods (21.65%) and transport (8.16%).

In trading value, consumer goods sector accounted for 31.88%, followed by banks and financial services (31.67%), real estate (15.18%) and industrials (11.81%).

Mawashi equities accounted for 24.63% of the total trading value, followed by Mazaya Qatar (6.87%) and Commercialbank (6.71%).

In terms of deals, consumer goods sector accounted for 30.49% of the total, followed by banks and financial services (27.08%), real estate (16.72%) and industrials (12.61%).

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills during the week.