03/05/2014 07:37 AST
Investors, especially foreign institutions, sought to book profits from the positive factors-led bullish run in the previous weeks on the Qatar Stock Exchange during the week ended Thursday.
In the process, about 84% of the traded stocks witnessed their share prices go down and a whopping QR71bn in capitalisation being wiped off during the week that saw the Qatar Financial Market Authority issue five legislations as part of modernising the legal infrastructure and supporting the development of capital markets.
Insurance, industrials, banking, consumer goods and telecom counters saw severe selling pressure to drag the bourse’s 20-stock Qatar Index (based on price data) by 1.75% during the week that witnessed Gulf International Services project QR900mn profit on QR3.5bn revenue this year with Gulf Drilling International becoming a fully-owned subsidiary.
In comparison, Abu Dhabi saw its index decline 2.18%, Muscat (0.42%), Kuwait (0.23%) and Dubai (0.2%); while Saudi Arabia and Bahrain gained 1.08% and 0.6% respectively during the week that saw global credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s view that Qatar’s growth prospects augur well for the property/casualty insurance, which has grown annually 10-15%.
QSE is up 22.62% year-to-date (YTD) against Dubai’s stupendous gains of 50.7%, Abu Dhabi (17.9%), Bahrain (14.29%) and Saudi Arabia (13.17%), whereas Kuwait and Muscat were down 1.57% and 1.32% respectively.
Domestic institutions’ sustained net selling, but with lesser vigour, also abetted an overall bearish momentum in the market during the week that saw Woqod increasing the retail diesel prices.
Large cap equities saw its prices shrink more than 4% during the week that witnessed the listed industrials companies’ considerable slowdown in their earnings in the first quarter (Q1) of this year.
However, local retail investors were seen to buy stocks during the week that featured international credit rating agency Fitch upgrade al khaliji’s issuer default rating to ‘A’ from ‘A-’ with a “stable” outlook.
The 20-stock Total Return Index shed 1.75%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 2.44% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 1.88% during the week that saw Aamal Company register 56% jump in Q1 net profit.
Of the 43 stocks, 36 advanced; only six declined and one was unchanged in the week that saw Barwa report a 67% expansion in Q1 net profit.
Ten of the 12 banks and financial services; all of the nine industrials; six of the eight consumer goods; all of the five insurers; three of the four realty; all of the two telecom and one of the three transport stocks closed lower during the week that witnessed Qatar Industrial Manufacturing reported 14% growth in Q1 net profit.
Insurance stocks deflated 4.2%, industrials (3.24%), banks and financial services (2.66%), consumer goods (2.07%) and telecom (1.9%); while real estate gained 0.24% and transport (0.08%) during the week that witnessed Milaha reports 1% rise in Q1 net profit.
Among the influential losers were Industries Qatar, QNB, Aamal Company, Ezdan, Mannai Corporation, Alijarah Holding, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, al khaliji, Barwa, Milaha, Doha Insurance, Al Khaleej Takaful, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Qatar Islamic Insurance during the week.
However, United Development Company (UDC) and Nakilat were seen to buck the trend in the week that saw UDC report 57% gain in Q1 net profit.
The overall market trading volume were on the decline but was largely skewed towards real estate, banking, consumer goods and industrials sectors in the week that witnessed Zad Holding report 18% jump in Q1 net profit.
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