By Santhosh V Perumal
Business Reporter

Selling pressure of foreign institutions and substantially lower buying interests of their domestic counterparts led the Qatar Stock Exchange witness 338 points plunge in the index and about QR18bn in capitalisation during the week.

About 86% of the traded stocks were in the red during the week which saw the new commercial companies’ law stipulate that the enforceability of liability lawsuits against members of the board of directors be reduced to three years from the date the general assembly issues a resolution, approving the board’ report, against the previous stipulation of five years.

Industrials and banking counters witnessed higher-than-average selling pressure during the week which saw Qatar’s banking sector saw loan-deposit ratio increase to 115% in October against 112% in the previous month; even as Qatar Central Bank aims to limit it to 100% by the end of 2015.

Large and small cap equities suffered the most during the week which saw the banking, transport and real estate sectors together constitute more than 58% of the overall trading volume.

The 20-stock Qatar Index plunged 3.11% during the week which witnessed Qatar witness a more than 40% plunge year-on-year in producer price index in September 2015 on a sharp double-digit decline in the prices for crude and natural gas as well as refined petroleum products, basic metals and basic chemicals.

Muscat, Dubai and Abu Dhabi fell 2.2%, 2.11% and 1.03%, while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain rose 2.91%, 1.21% and 1.11% respectively during the week which saw the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics reveal that Asia continued to be largest trading partner of Qatar during the third quarter of this year, with the region accounting for 97.9% of Doha’s foreign trade surplus.

The Gulf bourses were down year-to-date with Dubai falling 15.1%, Bahrain (13.59%), Saudi Arabia (13.14%), Kuwait (11.34%), Muscat (10.64%) and Abu Dhabi (6.9%).

The 20-stock Total Return Index had fallen 3.11%, All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) by 2.99% and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 3.16% during the week which saw six of the seven sectors in the red.

Industrials stocks plummeted 4.02%, banks and financial services (3.62%), telecom (2.85%), consumer goods (2.77%), real estate (2.11%) and transport (1.21%); while insurance gained 0.11% during the week.

Of the 43 stocks, as many as 36 declined, while only six advanced and one was unchanged. Another one was not traded during the week which saw Nakilat and Masraf Al Rayan dominate the trading ring in terms of volume and value.

Eleven of the 12 banks and financial services, seven each of the nine industrials and the eight consumer goods, all of the four realty, three of the five insurers and two each of the three transport and the two telecom stocks closed the week lower.

Major losers included QNB, Industries Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan, Gulf International Services, Al Khaliji, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Aamal Company, Al Meera, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Barwa, Ezdan, Nakilat and Gulf Warehousing; even as Milaha, Qatar General and Reinsurance and Qatar Islamic Insurance bucked the trend during the week.

Market capitalisation eroded 3.08% to QR552.96bn with large, small and mid-cap equities melting 3.41%, 3.04% and 1.87% respectively; even as micro caps gained 1.94% during the week.

Large, micro, mid and small cap stocks have, however, fallen 21.4%, 12.17%, 6.66% and 5.26% respectively year-to-date.

Foreign institutions turned net sellers to the tune of QR115.92mn compared with net buyers of QR154.36mn the previous week.

Domestic institutions’ net buying considerably weakened to QR7.45mn against QR128.15mn the week ended November 19.

However, local retail investors’ net buying strengthened to QR91.66mn compared to QR69.29mn the previous week.

Non-Qatari retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR16.9mn against net profit takers of QR351.8mn the week ended November 19.

Total trade volume fell 40% to 22.49mn shares and value by 38% to QR954.83mn, while transactions rose 9% to 16,854 during the week.

The banks and financial services sector reported 60% plunge in trade volume to 6.5mn equities and 54% in value to QR375.17mn but on 19% jump in transactions to 5,412.

The telecom sector’s trade volume plummeted 41% to 1.9mn stocks and value by 23% to QR58.16mn, while deals were up 2% to 1,708.

The market witnessed 39% decline in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 3.52mn shares, 44% in value to QR72.31mn and 18% in transactions to 1,706.

The insurance sector’s trade volume tanked 38% to 0.21mn equities, value by 51% to QR13.77mn and deals by 39% to 219.

There was 21% shrinkage in the transport sector’s trade volume to 5.32mn stocks and 19% in value to QR146.13mn but on 1% rise in transactions to 2,297.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume shrank 15% to 1.06mn shares, value by 12% to QR41.18mn and deals by 16% to 725.

However, the industrials sector saw 13% surge in trade volume to 3.98mn equities but on 3% fall in value to QR248.11mn. Transactions soared 30% to 4,787.

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