QSE closes first week of 2022 on bullish note

Satyendra Pathak Doha Buoyed by rising oil prices, Qatari stocks closed the first week of the ‘New Year 2022’ on a bullish note. Shrugging off concerns t...

Satyendra Pathak Doha Buoyed by rising oil prices, Qatari stocks closed the first week of the ‘New Year 2022’ on a bullish note.Shrugging off concerns that the Omicron coronavirus variant could choke the global economic recovery, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) main index increased 333.32 points, or 2.87 percent, during the week to close at 11,959.13 points. Crude prices rose sharply during the week, extending a rally from the previous week on escalating unrest in OPEC+ oil producer Kazakhstan and supply outages in Libya. The Brent crude gained 2.04 percent to reach $82.45 per barrel.The week saw QSE’s market capitalisation move up by 1.8 percent to QR679.6 billion (bn) as compared to QR667.6 billion at the end of the previous week. The bull run was driven by foreign institutional investors as they remained bullish throughout the week.Foreign institutions closed the week with net buying of QR340 million against net buying of QR251 million in the previous week. Foreign retail investors, however, closed the week with a net selling of QR45 million against a net buying of QR27 million in the previous week.According to an estimate by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), foreigners were net buyers of Qatari stocks worth foreigners were net buyers of $61.6 million (as of Wednesday closing) since the start of this financial year.Qatari institutions remained negative with net selling of QR10 million against net selling of QR130 million in the week before. Qatari retail investors also remained bearish with net selling of QR285 million against net selling of QR147 million in the previous week. Trading value during the week increased by 12.2 percent to QR1.597 billion against QR1.424 billion in the previous trading week. QNB Group (QNB) was the top value traded stock during the week with a total traded value of QR212.5 million.Trading volume increased by 5.2 percent to 542.9 million shares against 515.9 million shares in the previous trading week. Salam International was the top volume traded stock during the week with a total traded volume of 81.6 million shares.The number of transactions also went up by 12.9 percent to 39,400 against 34,886 in the previous week. Masraf Al Rayan, Industries Qatar (IQ) and Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) were the primary contributors to the weekly index gain. Masraf Al Rayan and IQ added 100.6 and 63.5 points to the index, respectively. Moreover, QIB added another 56.7 points to the index.Of the 47 companies traded during the week, 30 closed the week higher. While 16 stocks closed the week lower, there was no change in the share price of the remaining one stock. Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC) was the best performing stock for the week with a gain of 7.7 percent. On the other hand, Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance Company (QGRI) was the worst-performing stock with a decline of 6.75 percent. The week saw five of the seven sector indices close in the positive territory. The industrial sector, which gained 3.7 percent, was the best performing sector index for the day. The real estate sector also gained over 3 percent to lift the index higher during the week.Major Gulf bourses, however, closed lower on Thursday on worries over higher US interest rates and the rapid spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting showed that a tight jobs market and unrelenting inflation could require the US central bank to raise rates sooner than expected and begin reducing its overall asset holdings.