Satyendra Pathak
Doha
Qatari stocks continued gaining trend for the third week as the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index gained 3.68 points, or 0.04 percent, during the week to close at 10,322.96 points.
The QSE’s market capitalisation edged lower by 0.01 percent to QR605.2 billion compared with QR605.3 billion at the end of the previous trading week.
Foreign institutions remained bullish, closing the week with net buying of QR55.5 million against net buying of QR69.9 million in the previous week.
Foreign retail investors, however, closed the week with net selling of QR3.5 million against net buying of QR15.8 million in the previous week.
According to an estimate of QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), as of today’s closing, global foreign institutions were net short of $166.5 million, while GCC institutions were net buyers of Qatari stocks by $724.8 million since the start of this year.
Qatari institutions remained bearish with a net selling of QR27 million against a net selling of QR11.5 million in the week before. Qatari retail investors also recorded net selling of QR25.1 million against net selling of QR74.3 million the week before.
The traded value during the week declined 36.4 percent to reach QR2,278.8 million from QR3,583.9 million in the previous trading week.Gulf International Services (GIS) was the top-value traded stock during the week with a total traded value of QR248.3 million.
Traded volume decreased 31.5 percent to reach 872.5 million shares compared with 1,273.3 million shares in the previous trading week.
The number of transactions fell 22.5 percent to 80,343 against 103,630 in the previous week.Gulf International Services was the top volume traded stock during the week with a total traded volume of 89.2 million shares.
Qatar Navigation (Milaha) was the best-performing stock for the week, rising 8.7 percent. Meanwhile, Qatar German for Medical Devices (QGMD) was the worst-performing stock for the week, down 15.7 percent.
Of the 51 traded companies, 24 closed the week higher and 26 ended lower, while the share price of one stock remained unchanged.
Industries Qatar, Qatar Navigation, and Ooredoo were the primary contributors to the weekly index gain. Industries Qatar and Qatar Navigation added 51.86 points and 37.26 points to the index, respectively. Further, Ooredoo contributed another 12.85 points.
Commenting on QSE’s weekly performance, financial advisor Ramzi Qasimia said that the movement of the QSE index during the current week did not deviate from traders’ expectations to witness relative stability, especially with the fixing of interest rates by the US Federal Reserve and the Qatar Central Bank, ending the end-of-week sessions at an increase of 28.31 points, or 0.27 percent, with the weekly closing at levels of 10,322 points, thus continuing its sideways movement between 10,200 and 10,400 points.
In his remarks to Qatar News Agency, the financial advisor pointed out that the QSE index is expected to break the barrier of 10,400 points in the coming period, supported by the third-quarter financial results of listed companies.
He added that most of the QSE-listed Qatari companies recovered during the current week following the reviews of the FTSE index during the past week, as these reviews enabled Dukhan Bank to enter the index and adjust the weights of most Qatari companies.
He noted that trading values are still ranging between QR450 million and 500 million as average daily trading since the beginning of this month, with the exception of last Thursday’s session, which coincided with the aforementioned reviews.
He said that most of the leading stocks moved during this week within narrow price changes, except the Industries Qatar stock, which continued to achieve gains since the beginning of this month, as it increased by around 14 percent as a result of the rise in global market oil prices that affected the industrial sector index, leading it to increase by 7.4 percent since the beginning of the month.
The financial advisor indicated the remarkable activity of the insurance sector, which rose by 3 percent, thanks to the positive impact of Qatar Insurance (QIC) stock, which has been achieving positive gains since the beginning of September.
The transportation sector index also achieved gains of approximately 1.7 percent due to the positive performance of Milaha company shares, which closed Thursday’s session with a 3 percent increase, while the financial sector index declined by approximately 1.25 percent, and the services sector index declined by1.2 percent.