30/09/2017 15:30 AST
The Qatar Stock Exchange witnessed investors’ strong penchant for telecom, consumer goods and industrials equities even as it settled in the negative this week.
Local retail investors were seen increasingly bullish amidst an overall 0.58% decline in the main barometer this week, which saw Qatar rated as the second best competitive economy in the Arab world by the World Economic Forum despite the Gulf crisis instigated by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Both domestic institutions and non-Qatari individuals continued to be bullish but with lesser vigour this week which witnessed Qatar’s foreign trade surplus at QR12.62bn in August, growing more than 45% year-on-year and 5% on a monthly basis.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining vis-à-vis an overall decline this week, which witnessed no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
Gainers outnumbered decliners this week which saw industrials and banking counters together account for about 64% of total trading volume.
The industrials sector accounted for 33% of the total volume, banks and financial services (31%), realty (16%), telecom (13%), transport (5%), and consumer goods and insurance (1% each) this week that saw a Reuter’s poll that found Middle Eastern fund managers’ positive outlook towards Qatari equities. The banks and financial services’ share in total trade turnover was 48%, industrials (22%), real estate (12%), telecom and transport (7% each), consumer goods (3%) and insurance (2%) this week.
“We are not surprised to see the market inching upwards after a prolonged bearish move. Further gains are still expected on the coming period as part of a natural correction and the next target will be 8,660 points, while above it would promote 8,775 points,” Kamco had said in its technical analysis after the initial gains this week.
The medium-term and long-term investors can reenter the market once the index sustains a close above 9,600 points and 10,000 points, respectively, it added. On the contrary, Kamco also said “the nearby support levels are at 8,400 points, 8,350 points and 8,265 points but only below the last level would re-instate the bearish tone and trigger 8,000 points.”
More than 51% of the stocks extended gains with major movers being Qatar First Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Mannai Corporation, Gulf International Services, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Milaha, Investment Holding Group, Qatar Oman Investment, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices and Medicare Group this week.
Nevertheless, Qatar Insurance, Gulf Warehousing, Commercial Bank, QNB, Doha Bank, Widam Food, Al Meera, Ezdan and Qatari Investors Group were among the losers this week.
Local retail investors’ net buying strengthened substantially to QR60.01mn compared to QR19.57mn the previous week.
However, domestic institutions’ net buying weakened influentially to QR23.46mn against QR56.48mn the week ended September 21.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying also declined perceptibly to 2.99mn compared to QR8.04mn a week ago.
Non-Qatari funds’ net profit booking increased to QR86.46mn against QR83.98mn the week ended September 21.
A total of 56.91mn shares valued at QR1.25bn traded across 15,702 transactions this week. The industrials sector saw 18.68mn equities worth QR268.33mn change hands across 4,047 deals; banks and financial services saw 17.63mn stocks valued at QR595.81mn trade across 5,322 transactions, and real estate sector witnessed 9.09mn shares worth QR144.2mn change hands across 2,262 deals.
A total of 7.49mn telecom equities valued at QR92.92mn traded across 1,104 transactions and 2.69mn of transport stocks worth QR81.84mn change hands across 1,629 deals.
As many as 0.79mn and 0.54mn consumer goods and insurance shares valued at QR38.41mn and QR26.16mn trade across 911 and 427 transactions respectively.
Gulf Times
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