Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Faster appreciation in telecom, insurance, transport and real estate stocks lifted the Qatar Stock Exchange, which showed tendency to break the 12,700 levels during the week that witnessed robust corporate earnings as well as strengthened crude.

Retail investors’ buying push was visible when the 20-stock Qatar Share Index rose 0.69% during the week that saw global credit rating agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) affirm its 'AA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Qatar despite weak oil prices.

Foreign institutions continued to be bullish but with lesser intensity during the week that witnessed Industries Qatar (IQ) subsidiary Qatar Fuel Additives launch its $80mn carbon dioxide recovery (CD-R) plant, two months ahead of the schedule.

Islamic stocks were seen gaining slower than the other investment classes during the week that saw Mannai Corporation subsidiary Mansoft divest its stake in Jordan-based loss making Utility Networks Information Systems.

Telecom stocks appreciated 2.73%, insurance (2.53%), transport (1.89%), realty (1.38%), consumer goods (0.73%) and banks and financial services (0.64%); while industrials fell 0.67% during the week that saw S&P assign 'BBB' long-term counterparty credit and insurer financial strength ratings to Al Khaleej Takaful Group and stamped "stable" outlook.

The 20-stock Total Return Index rose 0.69%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.7% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.37% during the week that featured Ernst and Young say that Qatar, along with certain other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, held promising potential for mergers and acquisition in 2015.

Of the 43 stocks, 21 gained, while 19 declined and three were unchanged. Six of the eight consumer goods, four each of the 12 banks and financial services as well as the nine industrials, three of the five insurers, all of the two telecom and one each of the four real estate and the three transport stocks closed higher during the week.

Major movers along the positive trajectory included QNB, Aamal Company, Ezdan, Vodafone Qatar, Ooredoo, Nakilat, International Islamic, Alijarah Holding, Widam Food and Qatari Investors Group.

However, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Mazaya Qatar, Barwa and Salam International Investment bucked the trend.

Market capitalisation expanded 0.85% or about QR6bn to QR681.78bn.

Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR29.89mn compared with net sellers of QR30.56mn the previous week.

Non-Qatari retail investors also turned net buyers to the extent of QR55.79mn against net profit takers of QR69.89mn the week ended February 5.

Foreign institutions’ net buying sunk to QR35.87mn compared to QR144.35mn the previous week.

Domestic institutions’ net selling considerably strengthened to QR121.54mn against QR43.9mn the week ended February 5.

A total of 133.37mn shares valued at QR3.99bn changed hands across 40,292 transactions.

The real estate sector saw a total of 45.24mn equities worth QR1.11bn change hands across 11,562 deals.

The telecom sector saw 43.16mn stocks worth QR843mn trade in 7,284 transactions and as many as 20.1mn banks and financial shares valued at QR980.44mn change hands across 9,443 deals.

The industrials sector saw a total of 11.8mn stocks worth QR611.33mn trade across 6,952 transactions.

The market saw a total of 7.49mn consumer goods equities valued at QR236.85mn change hands across 3,308 deals.

The transport segment recorded 4.79mn shares valued at QR146.36mn trade in 1,039 transactions, while the insurance saw a total of 0.79mn equities worth QR54.86mn trade across 704 deals.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds during the week.