QSE gains 254 points in a week as the dividend season begins
QNB, GWC and QIB dividend announcements drive weekly rally that resulted in a 9.5% jump in trading value
QATARI stocks made huge gains during the week that saw some of the big names announce better than expected annual results and dividends for shareholders.
The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) main index increased by 253.95 points, or 2.43 percent, during the week to close at 10,698.31 points.
Qatari stocks generally outperform their emerging market (EM) peers once the dividend season begins in January. The weekly rally was mainly driven by the announcement of Qatar National Bank (QNB), Gulf Warehousing Company (GWC) and Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) to distribute cash dividend of 60 percent, 20 percent and 52.5 percent of the nominal share value respectively.
All seven sector indices gained in the week that saw market capitalisation rising by 2.18 percent to reach QR594.1 billion as compared to QR581.4 billion at the end of the previous week.
Trading value during the week increased by 9.5 percent to reach QR1.298 billion against QR1.18 billion in the previous week.
The banks and financial services sector led the trading value during the week, accounting for 58.3 percent of the total trading value.
Industrial sector was the second biggest contributor to the overall trading value, accounting for 13.1 percent of the total trading value.
QNB was the top value traded stock during the week with total traded value of
QR281.7 million.
Trading volume increased by 0.69 percent to reach 406.2 million shares against 403.4 million shares in the previous week.
Banks and financial services sector led the trading volume, accounting for 34.9 percent, followed by the industrial sector comprising 22.9 percent of the overall trading volume. Ezdan Holding was the top volume traded stock during the week with total traded volume of 37.3 million shares.
The number of transactions, however, fell by 21.4 percent to reach 23,650 transactions against 30,104 transactions in the previous week.
Vodafone Qatar was the best performing stock for the week, with a gain of 12.5 percent on 28.6 million shares traded. On the other hand,
QIB, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company (MPHC) and QNB were the primary contributors to the weekly index gain.
QIB was the biggest contributor to the index’s weekly increase, adding 90.5 points to the index. MPHC was the second biggest contributor to the mentioned gain, tacking on 25 points to the index. Moreover, QNB contributed 20.3 points to the index.
Foreign institutions ended the week with net buying of QR309.2 million against net buying of QR151.6 million in the previous week.
According QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), foreign institutions have bought on net basis $113.7 million worth of Qatari equities so far in 2020. Foreign retail investors remained negative with net selling of QR27.6 million against net selling of QR26 million in the previous week.
Despite selling pressure from Qatari institutional and retail investors, out of 47 listed companies, 37 companies ended the week higher. While seven fell and three remained unchanged.