By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter

Buying interests in the real estate, transport and consumer goods counters helped Qatar Stock Exchange settle in the positive turf, albeit at lower levels, during the week.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned bullish during the week that saw Commerzbank study which said Eurobond activity in the Qatar's banking sector is ought to pick up next year due to the slowdown in government-related deposits and ongoing healthy credit growth.
The reduced net selling pressure from domestic institutions also helped sustain the positive run during the week that saw the Ministry of Development Planning Study reveal that Qatar's trade surplus more than halved year-on-year to QR12.1bn in September 2015 mainly on substantially lower exports of crude and non-crude as well as natural gas.
However, profit booking was visible in the insurance, industrials, telecom and transport sectors during the week that saw the realty, banking, industrials and telecom sectors constitute about three-fourth of the overall trading volume.
The index that tracks Shariah-principled stocks was seen gaining slower than the other indices in the market during the week that saw Gulf Warehousing witness a total of 12,657 rights valued at QR269.31mn being traded in 46 transactions.
Three of the seven sectors witnessed buying interests as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.17% during the week that saw an overall decline in trading activities.
The 20-stock Total Return Index was up 0.17% and All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 0.16% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.14% during the week that saw 41 listed companies collectively report a 7% growth year-on-year in cumulative net profit to QR35.1bn in the first nine months of this year.
Opening strong, the market witnessed gains for the subsequent day as well to take the index to a high of 11,722 points but profit booking for the remainder of the session led the market to settle at 11,605 points.
Real estate stocks soared 2.39%, transport (0.94%) and consumer goods (0.67%); whereas insurance fell 0.96%, industrials (0.55%), telecom (0.45%) and banks and financial services (0.4%) during the week.
Of the 43 stocks, 20 gained, while 21 fell and one was unchanged. Another one was not traded during the week.
Five of the nine industrials, three each of the 12 banks and financial services and the eight consumer goods, all of the four realty, two each of the five insurers and the three transport, one of the two telecom stocks closed higher during the week.
Major gainers included Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Ezdan, Gulf Warehousing, Aamal Company, Woqod, Dlala, Islamic Holding Group and Al Khaleej Takaful Group during the week.
However, Commercial Bank, Alijarah Holding, Al Meera, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding and Vodafone Qatar bucked the trend during the week.
Market capitalisation was almost flat at QR608.04bn during the week.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR4.33mn against net sellers of QR18.62mn the week ended October 22.
Domestic institutions’ net profit booking weakened to QR65.72mn compared to QR92.17mn the previous week.
Local retail investors’ net buying weakened to QR34.56mn against QR64.24mn the week ended October 22.
Foreign institutions’ net buying declined to QR26.83mn compared to QR46.72mn the previous week.
Total trade volume shrank 47% to 28.53mn shares, value by 26% to QR1.17bn and transactions by 10% to 17,573 during the week.
The real estate sector saw 60% plunge in the trade volume to 7.61mn equities, 49% in value to QR200.52mn and 26% in deals to 3,016.
The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 58% to 4.86mn stocks, value by 44% to QR105.96mn and transactions by 20% to 2,028.
There was 56% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 3.99mn shares, 38% in value to QR140.29mn and 5% in deals to 2,280.
The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume tanked 20% to 4.85mn equities and value by 9% to QR315.7mn, while transactions rose 8% to 4,546.
The market witnessed 16% decline in the industrials sector’s trade volume to 4.05mn stocks, 12% in value to QR267.4mn and 22% in deals to 3,463.
However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume shot up 22% to 2.78mn shares, value by 16% to QR108.84mn and transactions by 21% to 1,737.
There was 18% increase in the insurance sector’s trade volume to 0.39mn equities, 28% in value to QR32.85mn and 42% in deals to 503.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds during the week.