Qatari stocks maintain gaining trend as foreign investors remain bullish

Satyendra Pathak Doha Qatari stocks maintained their gaining trend for the third week in a row as foreign investors remained bullish throughout the last ...

Satyendra Pathak Doha Qatari stocks maintained their gaining trend for the third week in a row as foreign investors remained bullish throughout the last week.The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) main index edged up by 9.06 points, or 0.08 percent, during the short week due to a public holiday on December 19 to close at 11,696.47 points on Thursday. Foreign institutions remained bullish, closing the week with net buying of QR173 million against net buying of QR65 million in the previous week. Foreign retail investors also remained bullish throughout the week with net buying of QR1 million against net buying of QR1 million in the previous week.According to an estimate by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), so far this year, foreign investors have bought Qatari stocks worth $1,683.1 million as of Wednesday closing.Qatari institutions, however, remained negative with net selling of QR115 million against net selling of QR34 million in the previous before. Qatari retail investors also remained bearish with net selling of QR59 million against net selling of QR32 million the week before. Because of selling pressure from Qatari investors, the market capitalisation of QSE moved down by 0.05 percent to QR668.8 billion as compared to QR669.2 billion at the end of the previous week. Trading value during the week dropped by 40.1 percent to QR1,159.2 million against QR1,933.9 million in the previous trading week. QNB Group (QNB) was the top value traded stock during the week with a total traded value of QR183.8 million.Trading volume also decreased by 26.5 percent to 417.9 million shares against 568.7 million shares in the previous trading week. Salam International was the top volume traded stock during the week with total traded volume of 77.7 million shares.The number of transactions also went down by 37 percent to 32,592 against 51,725 in the previous week. Of the 47 traded companies this week, 12 ended the week higher. The rest of the 35 stocks closed lower. Industries Qatar (IQ) was the best performing stock for the week, with a gain of 2.25 percent. On the other hand, Ahli Bank was the worst-performing stock with a decline of 8.52 percent.Industries Qatar, QNB and Nakilat were the primary contributors to the weekly index gain. IQ and QNB added 37.9 and 25.5 points to the index, respectively. Moreover, Nakilat added another 5.9 points to the index.The week saw four out of the seven sector indices close in the negative territory. The transport sector index, which gained 0.47 percent, was the best performing sector index for the week.The industrial sector, which gained 0.46 percent on the back of gains made by its main constituent Industries Qatar, was also instrumental in lifting the main index higher.The banking sector and the telecom sector also closed in the positive territory at the end of the week.Banking and Financial Services sector increased 15.59 points, 0.35 percent, to 4,981.66 points and Consumer Goods and Services sector dropped 66.88 points, 0.83 percent, to 7,987.03 points.Industries sector increased to 17.87 points, 0.44 percent, to 4,038.2 and the Insurance sector dropped 4.28 points, 0.16 percent, to 2,631.98 points.The Real Estate sector dropped 38.82 points, 2.11 percent, to 1,800.79 points. The Telecom sector increased 1.23 points, 0.12 percent, to 1,034.71 points and Transportation sector added 16.72 points, 0.47 percent, to 3,560.92 points.The week witnessed conventional stocks fare better than Islamic stocks.