Satyendra Pathak
Doha
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Index increased by 51.47 points, or 0.4 percent, during the week to close at 12,695.27 points.
Market capitalisation increased 0.8 percent to QR705.3 billion compared with QR699.8 billion at the end of the previoustrading week.
The traded value during the week increased 27.1 percent to QR2,882 million from QR2,268.1 million in the previous trading week. QNB Group (QNB) was the top value traded stock during the week with a total traded value of QR410.7 million.
Traded volume rose 46.5 percent to 916.5 million shares against 625.8 million shares in the previous trading week. Qatar Aluminum Manufacturing (Qamco) was the top volume traded stock during the week with a total traded volume of 151.9 million shares.
The number of transactions also increased 33.7 percent to 90,714 against 67,859 in the previous week.
Recovery in the weekly market performance was mainly led by foreign institutions that remained bullish, closing the week with net buying of QR153.7 million against net buying of QR98.7 million in the previous week.
Foreign retail investors, however, closed the week with net selling of QR17.1 million against a net buying of QR15.8 million in the previous week.
According to an estimate by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), foreign institutions were net buyers of Qatari stocks worth $3.98 billion since the start of this financial year.
Qatari institutions remained bearish with a net selling of QR101.8 million against net selling of QR12.6 million in the week before. Qatari retail investors also remained bearish with net selling of QR34.9mn vs. net selling of QR101.9mn the week before.
Qatar Gas Transport (Nakilat), Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) and QNB Group were the primary contributors to the weekly index rise. Nakilat and QIB added 72.84 and 30.35 points to the index, respectively. Further, QNB added another 21.99 points.
Of the 47 traded companies, 19 stocks closed the week higher and 27 closed lower. Nakilat was the best-performing stock for the week, climbing 13.5 percent. Meanwhile, Qatar Cinema & Film Distributing was the worst performing stock for the week, shedding8.5 percent.
