QNB and Industries Qatar’s moves on allowing up to 49% foreign ownership limit (FOL) brought with it hopes of similar action by other underlying constituents in the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), which added a huge 539 points in key sensitive index and QR36bn in capitalisation last week.
Foreign institutions turned bullish last week, which saw the QSE announce the biannual rejig of indices wherein the newly listed Investment Holding Group will replace Mazaya Qatar in the key 20-stock Qatar Index.
Notwithstanding the bearish grip of local and non-Qatar retail investors as well domestic funds, the 20-stock Qatar Index shot up 6.49% last week which also saw Al Rayan Qatar ETF (exchange traded fund), which tracks the Islamic index (price), cap the total expense ratio at 0.5%, one of the lowest in the region.
Islamic stocks were seen gaining slower than the main index and other indices this week which saw global insurance rating agency A M Best affirm Qatar Islamic Insurance's financial strength rating of 'B++ (Good)' and the long-term issuer credit rating of 'BBB+' with "stable" outlook.
About 66% of the traded stocks extended gains with major movers being Zad Holding, QNB, Qatar Electricity and Water, IQ and Barwa; while losers included Al Khaleej Takaful, Salam International Investment, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Ahli Bank and Doha Bank last week.
Profit booking was squarely visible within large cap segments this week which saw a total of 26,000 sovereign bonds valued at QR256.62mn trade across two deals.
The Total Return Index soared 6.49%, Al Rayan Islamic Index by 3.29% and All Share Index by 6.68% last week which saw no trading of treasury bills.
The banks and financial services index vaulted 9.19%, industrials (8.87%), realty (7.36%), consumer goods (2.67%) and telecom (1.78%); whereas insurance and transport declined 3.33% and 0.61% respectively this week which saw banking, industrials, insurance and real estate stocks accounted for more than 79% of the total trading volume.
The banks and financial services sector accounted for 25% of the total volume, industrials (23%), insurance (16%), realty (15%), transport (10%), telecom (9%) and consumer goods (2%) this week which saw a total of 91,375 QETFs valued at QR8.22mn trade across 181 deals.
The banks and financial services’ share in total trade turnover was 34%, industrials and insurance (18% each), transport (13%), real estate (9%), and consumer good and telecom (4% each) last week.
Non-Qatari funds turned net buyers to the tune of QR413.3mn compared with net sellers of QR79.37mn the previous week.
However, domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR328.14mn against net buyers of QR14.18mn a week ago.
Local retail investors were also net sellers to the tune of QR52.42mn compared with net buyers of QR51.84mn the week ended March 8.
Non-Qatari individual turned net profit takers to the extent of QR32.45mn against net buyers of QR13.44mn the previous week.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 89.79mn shares and value almost quadrupled to QR2.77bn on almost doubled transactions to 29,051.
The insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than 18-fold to 14.81mn equities and value by about 17-fold to QR496.16mn on almost quadrupled deals to 3,049.
The transport sector’s trade volume rose about five-fold to 8.81mn stocks and value by more than seven-fold to QR356.82mn on more than doubled transactions to 2,717.
The real estate sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 13.39mn shares and value also more than tripled to QR242.58mn on more than doubled deals to 4,268.
The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 20.34mn equities and value almost tripled to QR510.82mn on almost doubled transactions to 5,551.
The consumer goods sector reported 74% surge in trade volume to 1.51mn stocks, 94% in value to QR105.22mn and 83% in deals to 1,689.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume soared 67% to 22.67mn shares, more than tripling value to QR937.98mn and almost doubling transactions to 9,367.
However, there was a 5% fall in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 8.26mn equities but on 35% increase in value to QR124.21mn and 22% in deals to 2,410.
