By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

The Qatar Exchange (QE) overcame the strong selling pressure from foreign institutions to settle in the positive trajectory, but its performance fell short of its neighbors in the Gulf region during the week.
Buying interests — especially in transport, industrials and telecom stocks — masked the strong profit booking in the realty segment that the 20-stock Qatar Index closed 0.91% higher in the week that saw Kuwait gain 2.41%, Bahrain (1.38%), Abu Dhabi (2.01%), Muscat (1.84%), Dubai (1.81%) and Saudi Arabia (0.37%).
The Total Return Index shot up 1.15% but Al Rayan Islamic Index was up mere 0.01% in the week that saw Qatar pitch for the highest credit rating category of ‘triple-A’’ due to the inherent economic strengths.
The QE Index advanced 2.69% year-to-date (YTD) compared to Dubai’s stupendous gain of 18.1%, Abu Dhabi (15.19%), Kuwait (13.46%), Muscat (5.95%), Bahrain (5.66%) and Saudi Arabia (3.3%).
Major gainers included Nakilat, Qatari Investors Group, Commercialbank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Industries Qatar (IQ), Ooredoo and Milaha; even as Mazaya Qatar, Barwa, International Islamic, Al Meera, Gulf International Services (GIS) and United Development Company bucked the trend in the week that witnessed global credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s reply that Qatar  may find it difficult to win a credit rating upgrade in the next two years unless the nation reduces its reliance on public spending.
Barwa, IQ and Nakilat were among the most active by volume and value in the week that saw Woqod all set to complete the final phase of connecting a new pipeline from Mesaieed refinery to transport jet fuel to Hamad International Airport.
The QE All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) gained 0.84% with the transport index extending the maximum gains of 3.42%, industrials (2.67%), telecom (2.46%) and banks and financial services (0.12%); while that of real estate shrank 4.95%, consumer goods (0.84%) and insurance (0.35%) in the week that featured Finance Minister HE Yousef Hussein Kamal announce that Al Koot, an associate insurance company of GIS, is all set to be converted into a reinsurance entity.
Industrials, transport, telecom, consumer goods and banking sectors were seen to outperform the key barometers with their indices gaining YTD 9.76%, 8.79%, 8.65%, 6.75% and 4.58% respectively; while that of realty and insurance fell 4.36% and 0.13%.
Of the 42 stocks; 19 advanced, while 22 declined and one was not traded in the week that saw Widam (formerly Mawashi) has started selling subsidised feed that consists of barely and shuar through the main outlet in central market.
Six of the 12 banks and financial institutions, seven of the eight industrials, two each of the two telecom, the three transport and one each of the eight consumer goods and the five insurers close higher in the week.
Market capitalisation expanded 0.65% or about QR3bn to QR469.33bn with large and small cap equities gaining 1.49% and 0.85%; even as micro and mid caps shrank 2.78% and 1.72% respectively. Large and mid cap equities have gained YTD 2.55% and 1.1%; while small and micro caps lost 4.72% and 1.92% respectively.
The bourse’s price-earning ratio, a measure of expensiveness, was 12 .51times in the second week of March against 12.18 times in the comparable period of 2012.
The price-to-book value was 1.67 times at the end of March 14 against 1.68 times in the year-ago period.
The dividend yield, which takes into account cash dividends, stood at 4.45% in the second week of March compared to 3.71% in the year-ago period.
Foreign institutions’ net buying fell to 9.95% or QR150.33mn. A higher 40.73% of them bought equities against 31.77% the week ended March 7 but a much higher 30.78% of them offloaded compared to 18.09%.
Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of 0.27% or QR4.08mn. A much lower 15.71% of them were into buying against 25.64% the previous week and a much lower 15.44% into selling compared to 27.4%.
Qatari retail investors’ net selling fell to 10.74% or QR162.27mn. A marginally lower 30.9% of them were into buying against 31.12% the week ended March 7 and a marginally lower 41.64% into selling compared to 42.41%.
Non-Qatari individual investors’ net profit booking fell to 0.57% or QR7.86mn. A marginally higher 12.66% of them purchased stocks against 11.48% the previous week and a marginally higher 12.14% sold compared to 12.11%.
Total trading volume gained 78% to 35.66mn shares, value by 61% to QR1.51bn and transactions by 35% to 16,108 in the week.
In terms of volume, real estate stocks accounted for 32.14% of the total against 21.49% the previous week, banks and financial services stocks 23.16% (38.78%), transport 20.67% (7.23%), industrials 14.39% (20.89%), telecom 6.09% (5.13%), consumer goods 1.85% (4.14%) and insurance 1.71% (2.34%).
The transport sector’s trading volume jumped more than five-fold to 7.37mn shares, realty and telecom more than doubled to 11.46mn and 2.17mn respectively, insurance’s soared 30% to 0.61mn, industrials by 22% to 5.13mn and banks and financial services by 6% to 8.26mn; while that of consumer goods fell 20% to 0.66mn.
In terms of value, the industrials sector’s shares constituted 36.95% of the total compared to 26.57% a week ago, banks and financial sector 24.68% (42.28%), real estate 17.48% (9.67%), transport 9.65% (3.45%), consumer goods 5.82% (10.59%), telecom 3.55% (5.03%) and insurance 1.86% (2.4%).
The transport sector’s stocks trading value more than quadrupled to QR145.73mn, realty almost tripled to QR264.12mn, industrials more than doubled to QR558.34mn, insurance’s surged 24% to QR28.09mn and telecom by 13% to QR53.71mn; whereas that of consumer goods declined 12% to QR87.96mn and banks and financial services by 6% to QR372.94mn.
IQ stocks accounted for 30.45% of the total stocks trading value, Barwa (15.38%) and Nakilat (7.74%).
In terms of transactions, the banks and financial services sector’s share in total was 30.49% against 35.99% in the previous week, real estate 20.52% (14.64%), industrials 18.16% (23.6%), transport 15.24% (5.94%), consumer goods 8.34% (11.1%), telecom 4.67% (5.2%) and insurance 2.57% (3.55%).
The transport sector’s stocks transactions more than tripled to 2,455; realty shot up 90% to 3,305; telecom by 22% to 752; banks and financial services by 15% to 4,912, industrials by 4% to 2,926 and consumer goods by 2% to 1,344; while those of insurance were down 2% to 414.