Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) reversed its weekly declining trend as foreign institutional investors remained bullish during the last week.
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) 20 Benchmark Index ended another week with stability as it inched up by 36.63 points, or 0.32 percent, to close at 10,389.96 points on Thursday.
Foreign institutions bought shares worth QR181.8 million against net buying of QR183.6 million in the prior week. Foreign institutional investors accounted for 42.5 percent of the total buy during the week.
The foreign retail investors also turned bullish for the week with net buying of QR5.4 million against net selling of QR12.2 million in the prior week. Total shares worth $1.7 billion have been bought by foreign institutions in 2016 year to date (YTD).
However, both Qatari institutional and retail investors remained bearish during the week. While the Qatari institutional investors sold shares worth QR134.3 million against net selling of QR74.8 million the week before, the
Qatari retail investors' net selling stood at QR53.0 million against selling of QR96.6 million the week before.
Market capitalisation inched up by 0.3 percent to QR558.1 billion versus QR556.6 billion at the end of the previous week.
This shallow movement took place on weaker volumes, which explains why the movement was subdued.
QNBFS Research said,"We reiterate the notion that the index requires a stronger move above the 10,650 points to put it back in a potential upswing. Our main support remains at 10,000 and the expected resistance level to be at the 11,500 level."
Ooredoo (ORDS) was the best performing stock for the week with a gain of 4 percent on 801,446 shares traded.
On the other hand, Qatar Cinema & Film Distribution Company was the worst performing stock with a decline of 4.8 decline on 2,520 shares traded only.
Trading value during the week decreased by 20.3 percent to reach QR833 million compared to QR1.04 billion last week.
Trading volume decreased by 16.8 percent to reach 23.9 million shares versus 28.7 million shares in the prior week, while the number of transactions fell by 19.01 percent to reach 10,751 transactions as compared to 13,274 transactions in the previous week.
The banks and financial services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 32.1 percent of the total trading value. The industrial sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 29.6 percent of the total trading value.
The telecoms sector ranked third, accounting for 16.15 percent, followed by real estate sector, which accounted for 8.65 percent. Qatari Investors Group was the top value traded stock during the week with total traded value of QR137.9 million, accounting for 16.56 percent of the total trading value.
Qatari Investors Group was followed by Ooredoo, which accounted for 9.29 percent. The QNB was ranked third, accounting for 7.86 percent.
The banks and financial services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 27.6 percent, followed by the telecoms sector, which accounted for 25.3 percent of the overall trading volume. The industrials sector ranked third, accounting for 18.84 percent.
Vodafone Qatar was the top volume traded stock during the week with total traded volume of 5.2 million shares.
The banks and financial services sector also led trading number of transactions during the week, accounting for 30.74 percent of the total number of transactions, followed by Industrials sector, which accounted for 19.39 percent.
The telecoms sector ranked third, accounting for 17.56 percent, and finally followed by real estate sector, which accounted for 13.5 percent. Of the 44 listed companies, 19 companies ended the week higher, while 23 fell and two remained unchanged.