Profit booking — especially in the industrials and real estate counters — dragged the Qatar Stock Exchange below 9,000 levels and capitalisation eroded more than QR9bn this week.
The stronger selling from domestic funds as well as local and non-Qatari individuals led to 169 points rundown in the key index this week which saw the International Monetary Fund (IMF) view that considerable buffers and sound macroeconomic policies have helped Doha absorb shocks from lower hydrocarbon prices and the diplomatic rift.
Notwithstanding robust buying interests of foreign institutional investors, the 20-stock Qatar Index soared 1.86% this week which saw IMF terming Qatar’s near-term growth outlook to be broadly "positive", projecting 2.6% overall gross domestic product growth for 2018.
About 67% of the traded constituents were in the red this week which saw Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Company (QIMC) disclose its plans to buy out the foreign partner's 33.33% stake in Qatar Plastics Products Company.
On a year-to-date basis, the bourse's benchmark showed more than 4% expansion mainly on robust demand for banking and consumer goods sectors, whose indices were up in double digit. Large and midcap scrips also performed well on a yearly basis.
Islamic stocks were seen declining marginally slower than the conventional ones this week which saw no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
The market witnessed a total volume of 0.1mn QATR (Masraf Al Rayan sponsored exchange traded fund or ETF) valued at QR2.2mn trade across 144 transactions and as many as 0.04mn QETF (Doha Bank sponsored ETF) valued at QR3.8mn change hands across 46 deals this week.
The Total Return Index declined 1.86%, All Share Index 1.87% and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 1.69% this week.
The industrials index tanked 3.51%, realty (2.04%), telecom (1.7%), banks and financial services (1.68%), insurance (1.58%) and consumer goods (0.42%); while transport gained 1.3% this week which witnessed Nakilat, QNB and Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) dominate the trading ring in terms of volume and value.
Major losers included Aamal Company, QIB, Alijarah Holding, Qatar Oman Investment and Ezdan; whereas Zad Holding, Al Khaleej Takaful, Gulf Warehousing, QIMC and Mannai Corporation were among the gainers this week which saw banking and transport sectors together accounted for more than 68% of total trade volumes.
The banking and financial services sector accounted for 37% of the total trading volume, transport (31%), industrials (14%), telecom (8%), real estate (7%), and consumer goods and insurance (1% each) this week.
The banks and financial sector’s share in total trade turnover was 69%, industrials (17%), transport (8%), telecom (3%), consumer goods insurance and realty (1% each) this week.
Domestic funds’ net selling strengthened considerably to QR612.7mn compared to QR218.43mn a week ago.
Local retail investors’ net profit booking grew influentially to QR200.01mn against QR123.95mn the week ended May 24.
Non-Qatari individuals turned net sellers to the tune of QR17.29mn compared with net buyers of QR4.65mn the previous week.
However, non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR830mn against QR337.73mn a week ago.
Total trade volume more than doubled to 99.65mn shares and value more than tripled to QR5.76bn on 77% increase in transactions to 38,149.
The transport sector’s trade volume grew more than 10-fold to 30.58mn equities and value by about nine-fold to QR487mn on more than quadrupled deals to 6,650.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 37.14mn stocks and value almost quadrupled to QR3.97bn on 89% jump in transactions to 16,918.
The real estate sector saw 68% surge in trade volume to 6.89mn shares to more than double value to QR84.7mn on 2% rise in deals to 1,983.
The telecom sector’s trade volume shot up 21% to 8.22mn equities, value by 86% to QR147.5mn and transactions by 35% to 2,120.
There was 3% growth in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 1.13mn stocks and less than 1% in value to QR37.58mn and 24% in deals to 742.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume plummeted 13% to 1.25mn shares, value by 22% to QR69.26mn and transactions by 26% to 1,359.
The industrials sector reported 8% decline in trade volume to 14.44mn equities but more than doubling value to QR964.14mn on 67% surge in deals to 8,377.
