By Santhosh V Perumal/Business Reporter

With the US keeping options open on air strikes on Syria, panic gripped the Gulf bourses, which was reflected on the Qatar Exchange (QE), whose 93% of the stocks ended in the red during the week.
The ruckus in the local bourse could be gauged from a net drain-out of QR174mn by foreign institutions, which resulted in the QE’s key barometer to retreat below the 10,000 levels and capitalisation erode by QR24bn in the week.
The market — which witnessed precipitous declines on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — however, saw some reversals on the last day as investors discounted the fears on precipitating Syrian crisis on reports that the air strike may be delayed owing to multitude of extraneous reasons.
Local retail and institutions’ buying support notwithstanding, the Qatari bourse’s 20-stock barometer tanked 4.85% in the week vis-à-vis Dubai’s 6.55% plunge, Kuwait’s (5.82%), Abu Dhabi’s (5.44%), Saudi Arabia’s (5.20%), Muscat’s (3.03%) and Bahrain’s (1.22%).
Although there was an across-the-board selling, transport and real estate counters bore the maximum brunt in the market, which witnessed higher liquidity during the week that saw Qatar’s inflation harden to 3.1% year-on-year in July, mainly on upturn in rents.
Trade volumes expanded fast in the consumer goods but overall liquidity was skewed towards the banking and transport equities in the week that saw a survey from the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics, which forecasted “peak” demand for primary building materials during 2014-16.
The index that tracks Shariah-principle stocks was seen to under perform the other major indices in the week that saw Al Asmakh Real Estate Development Company project a 3-5% quarter-on-quarter increase in rents in the capital city.
“The chaos (on Syrian crisis) had had its fair share in dragging the market, but later the investors discounted the fears, especially on reports that the air strikes (by the US) might be delayed,” an analyst with a brokerage firm told Gulf Times. He said the markets would tend to move with caution considering the uncertainty in the Middle East region.
In a year-to-date comparison, the QE’s 15% gains were nowhere near Dubai’s stupendous 56% appreciation, Abu Dhabi’s 42% and Kuwait’s 29%.
The 20-stock Total Return Index also shrank 4.85%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 4.54% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 5.34% in the week that saw Qatar’s June trade surplus widen 2% year-on-year to QR QR32.15bn, although imports grew faster than exports.
Of the 42 stocks, only three advanced; while 29 declined in the week.
Industries Qatar, QNB, Nakilat, Qatari Investors Group, Aamal Company, Gulf International Services, United Development Company, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Ezdan, Ooredoo, Qatar Islamic Bank, International Islamic, al khaliji, Masraf Al Rayan, Widam Food, Vodafone Qatar and Milaha were seen to lose their sheen; even as Salam International Investment bucked the trend.
Transport stocks depreciated the maximum of 6.26%, followed by realty (5.98%), banks and financial services (4.72%), telecom (4.56%), industrials (4.45%), consumer goods (2.36%) and insurance (1.91%) in the week.
Eleven of the 12 banking stocks; seven of the eight consumer goods, all of the eight industrials, the four realty, the two telecom and the three transport; and four of the five insurance stocks ended weak in the week.
Market capitalisation eroded 4.36% to QR526.50bn. Large and mid-cap stocks were seen to melt about 5% each and small and micro caps 4% each.
Foreign institutions were seen increasingly bearish as their net selling surged to QR173.79mn against QR6.88mn in the pervious week.
Despite their lower exposure, domestic institutions were net buyers to the tune of QR102.53mn, compared to net sellers of QR99.78mn in the week ended August 22.
Qatari individual investors turned bullish that they were net buyers to the extent of QR114.05mn against net sellers of QR83.66mn the previous week.
Non-Qatari retail investors were increasingly profit-takers as their net selling rose to QR42.80mn compared with the QR9.42mn in the week ended August 22.
Indicating improved liquidity, total trading volume rose 16% to 56.23mn shares with the banking sector accounting for 27.25%, followed by transport (20.49%), real estate (20.38%), industrials (11.19%), consumer goods (9.43%), telecom (7.91%) and insurance (3.36%).
The consumer goods sector’s trading volume surged 78% to 5.30mn shares, telecom by 37% to 4.45mn, transport by 19% to 11.52mn, realty by 15% to 11.46mn, banks and financial services by 9% to 15.32mn and industrials by less than 1% to 6.29mn; while insurance’s fell 8% to 1.89mn.
Reflecting better expected prospects, total stocks trading value gained 30% to QR2.35bn with the banking sector stocks constituting 31.91% of the total, followed by industrials (24.21%), transport (13.67%), consumer goods (10.34%), real estate (9.56%), telecom (6.73%) and insurance (3.59%).
The telecom sector’s stocks trading value soared 85% to QR158.15mn, industrials by 77% to QR569.31mn, consumer goods by 47% to QR243.09mn, banks and financial services by 25% to QR750.41mn, realty by 13% to QR224.86mn and transport by 1% to QR321.39mn; whereas that of insurance tanked 29% to QR84.42mn.
IQ accounted for 17.48% of total stocks trading value, followed by QNB (9.57%) and Nakilat (7.65%).
Total market transactions expanded 25% to 27,429 deals with the banking sector’s share at 29.76%, industrials (18.6%), real estate (14.97%), transport (14.82%), consumer goods (12%), telecom (6.55%) and insurance (3.3%).
The telecom sector witnessed 74% gain in transactions to 1,796; consumer goods by 40% to 3,291; real estate by 37% to 4,107; banks and financial services by 29% to 8.162; industrials by 17% to 5,103 and transport by 5% to 4,064; while those of insurance was down 7% to 9906.
In the debt market, there was no trading of bonds and treasury bills.