Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Bucking the declining trend, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Index rose by 217.25 points, or 2.1 percent, during the last trading week to close at 10,641.45 points.
The positive gains saw the market capitalisation increase by 1 percent to QR594 billion compared with QR588 billion at the end of the previous trading week.
The gains were mainly led by foreign institutions that turned bullish, closing the week with net buying of QR80 million against net selling of QR10.4 million in the previous week.
Foreign retail investors, however, closed the week with net selling of QR11.1 million against net selling of QR2.5 million in the previous week.
According to an estimate by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), global foreign institutions were net buyers of Qatar stocks worth $14.4 million since the start of this year.
Qatari retail investors recorded net buying of QR7.8 million against net buying of QR1 million the week before.
Qatari institutions, however, turned bearish with net selling of QR76.7 million against net buying of QR11.9 million in the week before.
The traded value during the week dropped 6.8 percent to QR2,093.3 million from QR2,245.6 million in the previous trading week. Industries Qatar (IQ) was the top-value traded stock during the week with a total traded value of QR587.8 million.
The traded volume went down 14.5 percent to 573 million shares compared to 670.1 million shares in the previous trading week. The number of transactions also decreased 5.7 percent to 72,475 against 76,867 in the previous week.
Masraf Al Rayan was the top volume traded stock during the week with a total traded volume of 70.7 million shares.
Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Commercial Bank (CBQ), and QNB Group (QNB) were the primary contributors to the weekly index gain. QIB and CBQ added 94.59 and 54.69 points to the index, respectively. Further, QNBK contributed another 51.47 points.
Qatar Industrial Manufacturing (QIMD) was the best-performing stock for the week, climbing 13.8 percent. Meanwhile, Dlala Brokerage & Investment Holding was the worst-performing stock for the week, losing 19.1 percent.
Of the 49 traded companies, 25 ended the week higher, while 24 closed lower.
In his analysis of QSE developments this week to QNA, financial market analyst Youssef Abou Hliqa said that the dividends announced by Industries Qatar revived QSE trading and contributed to raising its performance during the current week, expecting that the company’s shares and the shares of Qatar National Bank will lead the performance during thecoming period.
The financial market analyst pointed out that Industries Qatar’s announcement of distributing profits of 110 percent of the nominal value of the share, representing 8.5 percent as a return, compared to the share’s trading price today, gives impetus to trading as it is higher than the interest rates suggested by banks.
Abou Hliqa indicated that QSE’s trading on Thursday saw purchase operations by local portfolios, adding that all these indicators affirm that QSE is in the right direction, expecting a positive performance during the comingperiod.
Abou Hliqa stressed that the positive results of the listed companies - announced so far - are still within the expectations of investors despite the decline recorded by some of them, which will enhance the market movement supported by the strong foundations of the Qatari economy.