During the shortened trading week (4-day week), the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Index increased by 464.41 points, or 4.7% during the week to close at 10,428.67. Market capitalisation increased by 4.1% to QR559.7bn versus QR537.6bn at the end of the previous week. Of the 44 listed companies, 36 companies ended the week higher, while 7 fell and 1 remained unchanged. Qatar Insurance Co (QATI) was the best performing stock for the week with a gain of 10.1% on 414,405 shares traded. On the other hand, Ahli Bank (ABQK) was the worst performing stock with a decline of 3.3% on 111,689 shares traded only.
QNB Group (QNBK), Ezdan Holding Group (ERES) and QATI and were the primary contributors to the weekly index gains. QNBK was the biggest contributor to the index’s weekly increase, adding 100.2 points to the index. ERES was the second biggest contributor to the gain, contributing 83.3 points to the index. Moreover, QATI tacked on 57.8 points to the index. On the other hand, Al Meera Consumer Goods Co (MERS) had a negligible impact on the index.
Trading value during the week increased by 220.0% to reach QR876.7mn versus QR274.0mn in the prior week. The Banks and Financial Services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 37.0% of the total trading value. The Industrials sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 21.3% of the total trading value. QNBK was the top value traded stock during the week with total traded value of QR116.7mn.
Trading volume increased by 291.6% to reach 23.2mn shares versus 5.9mn shares in the prior week. The number of transactions increased by 215.2% to reach 14,331 transactions versus 4,546 transactions in the prior week. The Banks and Financial Services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 36.3%, followed by the Real Estate sector, which accounted for 20.0% of the overall trading volume. Qatar First Bank (QFBQ) was the top volume traded stock during the week with total traded volume of 2.96mn shares.
Foreign institutions remained bullish during the week with net buying of QR103.2mn vs buying of QR37.3mn in the prior week. Qatari institutions remained bearish with net selling of QR27.8mn vs net selling of QR31.2mn the week before. Foreign retail investors turned bearish for the week with net selling of QR28.4mn vs net buying of QR780,779 in the prior week. Qatari retail investors remained bearish with net selling of QR47.1mn vs net selling of QR6.9mn the week before. In 2016 YTD, foreign institutions bought (on a net basis) ~$510mn worth of Qatari equities.