Market heavyweight Industries Qatar's (IQ) robust 34% first quarter net profit jump had had a positive influence in the Qatar Exchange (QE) in the week, even as the market's year-to-date (YTD) performance was nowhere near the double-digit gains of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait bourses.
Foreign institutions substantially lowered their selling pressure, leading to the 20-stock Qatar Index gain 2.03% in the review week that saw Dubai gain 6.53%, Abu Dhabi (6.44%), Kuwait (2.91%), Saudi Arabia (0.96%), Bahrain (0.38%) and Muscat (0.02%).
Industrials stocks alone outperformed the key benchmarks in the week that witnessed market capitalisation enhance by QR10bn, mainly due to a rally in the large cap segments.
The Total Return Index surged 2.07% and Al Rayan Islamic Index 2.61% in the week that saw Qatar Fuel Additives Company, an IQ subsidiary, announce its plans to enhance the production of MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether), a gasoline additive, in Mesaieed and Ras Laffan due to increasing demand for cleaner fuel.
The QE Index had risen 2.8% YTD against Dubai's 27.92% gain, Abu Dhabi (24.97%), Kuwait (22.75%), Muscat (7.67%), Saudi Arabia (4.8%) and Bahrain (2.99%).
More than 64% of the stocks extended gains to investors with major movers being IQ, Gulf International Services, Qatari Investors Group, United Development Company, Barwa, Doha Bank, Commercialbank, QNB and Al Meera; even as Widam Food, Aamal Company, Nakilat and Mazaya Qatar bucked the trend in the week.
UDC, Qatari Investors Group and Barwa were among the most active by both volume and value in the week that saw Ooredoo disclose that its Indonesian subsidiary Indosat intends to delist its American Depositary Receipts from the New York Stock Exchange.
The QE All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) gained 1.94% with the industrials group index appreciating the maximum of 4.39%, realty (1.94%), consumer goods (1.34%), banks and financial services (1.16%) and transport (0.48%); while that of insurance fell 1.79% and telecom was flat in the week.
Industrials, consumer goods, telecom, transport and banking sectors were seen to outperform the key barometers with their indices gaining YTD 18.42%, 13.65%, 12.06%, 6.75% and 4.04% respectively; while that of real estate fell 2.49%. The insurance gained a marginal 0.15%.
Of the 42 stocks; 27 advanced, while only 11 declined and two were unchanged. Two others were not traded in the week that also saw Ooredoo submit a binding offer to acquire Vivendi's 53% shareholding in Morocco-based Maroc Telecom Group.
All of the 12 banks and financial institutions; four each of the eight industrials and the eight consumer goods, three of the five insurers and two of the four realty and the three transport stocks close higher in the week.
Market capitalisation expanded 2.14% to QR474.67bn with large, small, mid and micro cap equities gaining 2.02%, 1.64%, 0.98% and 0.91% respectively.
Mid, large and small cap equities have gained YTD 3.19%, 3% and 1.16% respectively; while micro caps plunged 4.96%.
The bourse's price-earning ratio, a measure of expensiveness, was more than 12 times in the fourth week of April against 12.06 times in the comparable period of 2012.
The price-to-book value was 1.66 times at the end of April 25 against 1.72 times in the year-ago period.
The dividend yield, which takes into account cash dividends, stood at 4.52% in the fourth week of April compared to 3.7% in the year-ago period.
Foreign institutions' net buying surged to 12.4% or QR130.26mn. A lower 28.89% of them bought equities against 35.99% the week ended April 18 but a much lower 16.49% of them offloaded compared to 34.12%.
Domestic institutions' net profit booking rose to 0.46% or QR4.83mn. A higher 22.01% of them were into buying against 16.47% the previous week and a higher 22.47% were into selling compared to 16.75%.
Qatari retail investors' net profit booking surged to 5.59% or QR58.72mn. A higher 37.13% of them were into buying against 33.36% the week ended April 18 and a much higher 42.72% into selling compared to 34.04%.
Non-Qatari individual investors' net selling shot up to 6.35% or QR66.70mn. A lower 11.97% of them purchased stocks against 14.18% the previous week whereas a higher 18.32% sold compared to 15.08%.
Total trading volume rose 33% to 30.04mn shares, value by 24% to QR1.05bn and transactions by 9% to 15,504 in the week.
In terms of volume, the real estate stocks accounted for 29.63% of the total against 14.88% the previous week, banks and financial services 20.94% (24.08%), industrials 19.64% (14.97%), consumer goods 12.05% (9.02%), telecom 8.99% (26.97%), transport 8.02% (9.06%) and insurance 0.73% (1.02%).
The realty sector's trading volume more than doubled to 8.90mn shares, consumer goods' surged 78% to 3.62mn, industrials by 75% to 5.90mn, transport by 18% to 2.41mn and banks and financial services by 16% to 6.29mn; while that of telecom plunged 56% to 2.70mn and insurance by 4% to 0.22mn.
In terms of value, the industrials stocks constituted 36.11% of the total compared to 32.97% a week ago, banks and financial services 24.94% (30.11%), real estate 14.28% (8.26%), consumer goods 12.85% (13.59%), transport 6.46% (4.86%), telecom 4.44% (8.89%) and insurance 0.92% (1.33%).
The realty sector stocks' trading value more than doubled to QR149.99mn, transport's surged 65% to QR67.89mn, industrials by 36% to QR379.28mn, consumer goods by 17% to QR135.01mn and banks and financial services by 3% to QR262.03mn; whereas that of telecom tanked 38% to QR46.61mn and insurance by 15% to QR9.65mn.
IQ equities accounted for 22.4% of the total stocks trading value, followed by Qatari Investors Group (6.24%) and UDC (5.51%).
In terms of transactions, the industrials sector's share in total was 28.39% against 30.28% the previous week, banks and financial services 27.45% (29.11%), real estate 17.47% (12%), consumer goods 14.85% (12.28%), transport 6.06% (6.39%), telecom 4.42% (8.48%) and insurance 1.37% (1.46%).
The realty sector stocks transactions expanded 58% to 2,708; consumer goods by 31% to 2,302; transport by 3% to 939; banks and financial services by 2% to 4,256; industrials by 2% to 4,402 and insurance by 2% to 212; whereas those of telecom declined 43% to 685.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills during the week.
© Gulf Times 2013
