Satyendra Pathak
Doha
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Index rose by 64.10 points, or 0.64 percent, over the week to close at 10,098.36 points, marking a 1.3 percent gain since the beginning of July.
QSE’s market capitalisation increased by 0.8 percent, reaching QR584.9 billion from QR580.3 billion at the end of the previous trading week.
Out of the 52 traded companies, 19 ended the week higher, 31 ended lower, and two were unchanged. QLM Life & Medical Insurance Company (QLM) emerged as the best-performing stock of the week, rising by 4.7 percent, while Ezdan Holding Group (ERES) was the worst-performing stock, dropping by 4.2 percent.
QNB Group (QNBK), Qatar Islamic Bank (QIBK), and Industries Qatar (IQCD) were the main contributors to the weekly index rise, with QNBK and QIBK adding 51.46 and 19.92 points to the index, respectively. Additionally, Ooredoo (ORDS) contributed another 15.45 points.
The traded value for the week fell by 29.1 percent to QR1,454.2 million from QR2,051.7 million in the previous trading week. QNB Group was the top value traded stock with a total traded value of QR188.2 million.
Traded volume decreased by 32.8 percent to 545.5 million shares from 812.3 million shares in the prior week. Baladna was the top volume traded stock with a total traded volume of 78.1 million shares.
The number of transactions also dipped by 26.2 percent to 58,573 from 79,338 in the prior week.
Foreign institutions remained bullish, closing the week with net buying of QR106.5 million against net buying of QR133 million in the previous week. Qatari institutions remained bearish with net selling of QR40.7 million against net selling of QR70.7 million in the prior week.
Foreign retail investors recorded net selling of QR9.6 million against net selling of QR26.8 million in the prior week. Qatari retail investors noted net selling of QR56.2 million against net selling of QR35.4 million the weekbefore.
According to an estimate by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), global foreign institutions were net sellers by $27.1 million, while GCC institutions were net sellers of Qatari stocks by $277.2 million as of today’s closing.
In this context, financial advisor Ramzi Qasmieh told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the index has been trading within a horizontal range between 10,000 and 10,200 points for nearly three weeks. He noted a decrease in liquidity and trading levels due to the holiday season and the lack of new liquidity entering the market.
Qasmieh indicated that the shares, or the majority of them, did not react to the positive performance of companies’ profits, adding that the combined profits of companies that announced their results so far recorded a growth of around 7.7 percent. As for the weekly sectoral performance, he pointed out that the telecommunications sector index led with gains of approximately 1.73 percent, followed by the financial sector with gains of approximately 1.6 percent, while the real estate sector declined by about 1.67 percent.
He also mentioned that the performance of the general index was affected by the trading of Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) and Dukhan Bank shares without eligibility for interim distributions, which pressured the index’s performance in today’s session. However, the rise in Industries Qatar and Qatar National Bank (QNB) shares at the end of the session mitigated the impact of the decline in QIB shares.
Regarding the best-performing stocks of the week, Qasmieh highlighted the increase recorded by QLM at 4.74 percent, followed by Baladna at 4.1 percent, and QNB at around 3.3 percent. As for the stocks that saw the greatest declines, Ezdan Company dropped by 4.16 percent, Doha Bank by 4.10 percent, and Qatari Investors Group by 3.64 percent.
