The Group Securities: Weekly Report on QSE Performance, 01-05 Oct 2017

The prices of the shares of Qatar companies continued its decline, with the General Index hitting its lowest since 2013. While the total trading volume fell by 34% to QR 824 million, the share price of 35 companies decreased and seven other increased. The result was the fall of the general index by 180 points, down to the level of 8132 points, resulting in an accumulative decline worth 22% since the beginning of this year. All sectoral indices dipped, namely real estates by 9.62%, owing to the marked decline of Ezdan share price. While total capitalization dropped by QR10.9 billion to QR 443.7 billion, the price-earnings ratio slid to 12.18. The Group reviews QSE performance in this week with illustrative charts combined with corporate business news, and a list of the affecting economic factors.

Corporates News:

1-- More companies are intending to disclose their financial results for the third quarter of 2017: Dlala, Gulf Warehousing, Qatar Inventors, Qatar Industrial Manufacturing, Ooredoo, QIB, Qatar Oman, Qatar Islamic Insurance, Al Ijarah, Qatar Insurance, Woqod, Islamic Holding, Vodafone and Nakilat.

Economic Developments

1-- Qatar's central bank announced the result of the Treasury Bills auction held on 03 October 2017. All of the three-, five-, seven-, and nine-month bills on offer were sold, with bids totaling QR 1 billion riyals. The results are as follows.: QR 500 million for three-month maturity with yield of 2.26%; 350 million for 6-moth maturity wirth 2.47% yield; QR 150 million 9-month maturity with 2.60% yield.

2-- The Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) have released the preliminary estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current and constant prices for the second quarter (Q2) of 2017.  The quarterly GDP at current prices in Q2 of 2017 is estimated at QR 146.26 billion. This represents an increase of 8.5% compared to the estimate of Q2 of 2016 placed at QR 134.81 billion.

3-- Banks consolidated balance sheet for August has been released showing a rise in total assets by about 14.9 billion to around QR1317.8 billion.  The total domestic public debt, including bonds, increased by about QR 5.1 billion to QR 462.8 billion, while the total domestic private sector deposits increased by QR 3.4 billion to the level of QR 453.5 billion.

4-- Last week, OPEC oil prices closed at $ 54.63 per barrel on Thursday, compared to $ 55.59 last week. Qatar's onshore oil was priced at $ 54.85 per barrel compared to 50.90 in the last month, up by 7.8%.

5-- Last week, Dow Jones index gained 369 points. US Dollar exchange rate stood at the level of 112.63yen, and $ 1.17 per Euro. Gold price decreased by 3.6 dollars to the level of $ 1279 per ounce.