Qatar bourse ends flat despite Q3 results
By Santhosh V. Perumal/Business Reporter
The third quarter results appear to have had no profound effect in the Qatar Exchange, whose key indices rather treaded a flat path during the week.
Increased profit booking by foreign institutions notwithstanding, both the 20-stock Qatar Index and Total Return Index closed flat in the week that however saw Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Muscat bourses lose 1.31%, 1.10% and 0.03% respectively; while Abu Dhabi gained 0.17%.
Doha’s bourse shrank 3.42% year-to-date (YTD) vis-à-vis Bahrain and Muscat’s decline of 6.81% and 0.89%, whereas Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia rose 20.89%, 10.49% and 5.91% respectively.
“Investors are rather waiting for the results of blue-chip entities and hence keeping their cards close to the chest,” an analyst with a brokerage firm told Gulf Times when asked about the flat course for the last three consecutive days and an overall shallow trading volumes.
So far, QNB, Dlala, National Leasing and Qatar Oman Investment Company have announced their third quarter results.
Major shakers included QNB, Commercialbank, Dlala and Qatar Telecom; even as Industries Qatar, Qatari Investors Group, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Vodafone Qatar and Gulf Warehousing bucked the trend in the week that saw Mannai Corporation propose to hike the capital by 33% to part fund its expansion.
The QE All Share Index (comprising wider constituents) was up 0.04% with the index of industrials surging 1.11%, transport (1.1%), consumer goods (0.29%) and realty (0.06%); while that of insurance shank 1.51%, banks and financial services (0.55%) and telecom (0.43%) in the week that featured Qatar Exchange’s move to include the listed companies from other Gulf countries as well as allow securities lending and borrowing.
The transport index is down 8.06% YTD, while the consumer goods index gained 46.79%, insurance (14.35%), telecom (12.62%), industrials (12.01%), banks and financial services (2.76%) and real estate (1.73%).
Of the 42 stocks; 22 advanced, while 19 declined and one was not traded in the week that saw global consultant KPMG opine that Qatar’s banking sector should explore acquisition possibilities in Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey because of saturation in domestic market.
Nine of the 12 banks and financial services, four of the eight consumer goods, two each of the eight industrials and the four realty and one each of the five insurance and the two telecom stocks closed lower in the week.
Market capitalisation was down 0.04% or QR17mn to QR466.08bn with small, mid and large cap equities losing 0.28%, 0.19% and 0.08% respectively; while micro caps gained 0.5% in the week. Large and mid cap equities have fallen YTD 3.76% and 3.2%; whereas micro and small caps gained 25.82% and 9.38% respectively.
Foreign institutions were increasingly profit takers as their net selling rose to 7.55% from 4.04% the previous week. Their net selling amounted to QR71.98mn.
A lower 12.99% of them bought equities compared to 14.02% the week ended October 4 while a higher 20.54% of them offloaded against 18.06%.
Non-Qatari retail investors turned bearish that they were net sellers to the tune of 0.47% compared with net buyers of 0.33% the previous week. Their net selling was QR4.48mn.
A higher 22.42% of them purchased stocks against 18.74% the week ended October 4 and a higher 22.89% of them sold compared to 18.41%.
Qatari individual investors’ bullish grip strengthened as their net buying rose to 2.92% from 0.57% the previous week. Their net buying amounted to QR27.84mn.
A lower 49.4% of them were into buying compared to 53.03% the week ended October 4 and a lower 46.48% of them were into selling against 52.46%.
Domestic institutions were increasingly bullish as their net buying surged to 5.11% from 3.14% the previous week. Their net buying was QR48.72mn.
A higher 15.19% of them were into buying against 14.22% the week ended October 4 while a marginally lower 10.08% were into selling compared to 11.08%.
The bourse’s price-earning ratio, a measure of expensiveness, was 12.09 times in the second week of October against 13.1 times in the comparable period of 2011.
The price-to-book value was 1.65 times at the end of October 11 against 1.69 times in the year-ago period.
Total trading volume was down 9% to 26.76mn shares, while value was up 1% to QR953.4mn but transactions fell 1% to 15,864 in the week that saw the banks and financial services sector dominate the trading ring in terms of volume, value and transactions.
In terms of volume, the banks and financial services sector accounted for 43.98% of the total compared to 29.53% in the previous week, consumer goods 19.51% (34.34%), realty 12.56% (11.12%), transport 9.79% (4.37%), industrials 6.76% (14.37%), telecom 6.39% (5.56%), and insurance 1.01% (0.75%).
The industrials sector’s trading volume plummeted 53% to 1.81mn shares and consumer goods’ by 48% to 5.22mn, while that of transport more than doubled to 2.62mn, banks and financial services rose by 35% to 11.77mn, insurance by 23% to 0.27mn, telecom by 4% to 1.71mn and real estate by 2% to 3.36mn.
In trading value, the banks and financial services sector cornered 43.92% of the total against 30.97% a week ago, consumer goods 21.65% (34.3%), industrials 10.87% (18.24%), transport 9.27% (3.1%), realty 6.81% (6.88%), telecom 6.07% (5.26%) and insurance 1.41% (1.25%).
The transport sector witnessed its stocks more than triple their value to QR88.36mn, banks and financial institutions’ surged 44% to QR418.72mn, telecom by 17% to QR57.85mn, insurance by 15% to QR13.49mn and real estate by less than 1% to QR64.93mn; while that of industrials plunge 40% to QR103.67mn and consumer goods by 36% to QR206.38mn.
The Islamic Holding Group equities accounted for 11.71% of the total trading value, followed by Mawashi (9.14%) and QNB (8.09%).
In terms of deals, the banks and financial services sector’s share was 40.19% of the total compared to 28.84% in the previous week, consumer goods 22.43% (29.94%), industrials 11.37% (20.03%), real estate 9.68% (10.05%), transport 9.09% (5.08%), telecom 5.60% (4.83%) and insurance 1.64% (1.23%).
The industrials sector’s stocks transactions tanked 44% to 1,804; consumer goods by 26% to 3,558 and realty by 5% to 1,536; whereas those of transport expanded 77% to 1,442; banks and financial services by 38% to 6,375; insurance by 32% to 260 and telecom by 15% to 889.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills during the week.