QSE gains for 4th week in a row, crosses 11K mark

Satyendra Pathak Doha Continuing its weekly gain for the fourth week in a row, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) general index moved up by 113.02 points, or...

Satyendra Pathak Doha Continuing its weekly gain for the fourth week in a row, the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) general index moved up by 113.02 points, or 1.03 percent, during the last week to cross the psychological 11,000-mark. The QSE general index closed for the week at 11,033.44 points on Thursday.The week saw QSE’s market capitalisation move up by 0.4 percent to QR638.2 billion as compared to QR635.9 billion at the end of the previous week. Foreign institutions remained bullish, closing the week with net buying of QR328 million against net buying of QR99 million in the previous week. Foreign retail investors also turned bullish to close the week with net buying of QR2 million against net selling of QR26 million in the previous week.According to an estimate by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), foreigners have bought Qatari stocks worth $832.3 million as of Wednesday closing since the start of the current financial year.Qatari institutions, however, remained negative with a net selling of QR170 million against net selling of QR26 million in the week before. Qatari retail investors also remained bearish with net selling of QR160 million against net selling of QR46 million the week before. Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) and Masraf Al Rayan (MAR) were the primary contributors to the weekly index increase. QIB and CBQ added 62 points and 39.7 points to the index, respectively. Moreover, Masraf Al Rayan added another 22 points to the index.The strong positive movement in the baking stocks was mainly triggered by Qatar’s Cabinet decision to approve a draft law allowing non-Qataris to have full ownership of capital at four major banks, in a move that has been described by experts as a breakthrough for the country’s economy.The decision, made during a regular meeting chaired on Wednesday, means that non-Qatari ownership has increased from 49 percent to 100 percent for four major banks like Qatar National Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Commercial Bank and Masraf Al Rayan.Trading value during the week declined by 3.4 percent to QR2.147 billion against QR2.222 billion in the previous trading week. QNB Group (QNB) was the top value traded stock during the week with a total traded value of QR329 million.Trading volume dropped by 20.6 percent to 872.1 million shares against 1.098 billion shares in the previous trading week. Investment Holding Group (IGRD) was the top volume traded stock during the week with a total traded volume of 208.4 million shares.The number of transactions also declined 6.2 percent to 45,323 against 48,342 in the previous week.Of the 48 traded companies, 16 stocks closed the week higher. While 31 stocks declined, there was no change in the price of the remaining one stock. Commercial Bank of Qatar was the best performing stock for the week, with a gain of 5 percent. On the other hand, Mannai Corporation was the worst-performing stock with a decline of 5 percent.While two out of the sector indices made gains during the week, there was a marginal decline in the rest of the five sector indices. The all share banks and financial services index led the sector indices with a gain of almost 2 percent during the week. The all share transportation index also closed in the positive territory for the week.The week also witnessed QSE announcing that the total net profit of companies listed on the exchange rose 28.31 percent to QR20.5 billion in the first half of 2021, compared to QR16 billion for the same period last year.According to data available on the QSE website, the banking and financial services and the industrials sectors together contributed over 80 percent of the cumulative net profits in the first half of this year.