The Group Securities: Weekly Report on QSE Performance, 24-28 December 2017

General Index Slides to 8526 Points

In the last week of this year, Qatar Stock Exchange's performance dampened, though numerous positive factors were still in play, including an increase in oil prices, and a remarkable rise of Qatar’s trade surplus. It seems that the need of some portfolios for liquidity forced it to scale down purchases and increase its sales of stocks, particularly that the index created a strong resistance barrier at the level of 8550 points. By the end of the week, General Index fell by 95 points, or 1.11% to 8526 points, and the All Shares index by 0.49%. Moreover, the indices of three sectors dropped, especially telecommunications and banking; while four recorded a rise, most notably Insurance. It was noted that the share price of Islamic Insurance was the biggest loser, falling by 7.12%, followed by Ooredoo's share price by 5.41%, and Qatar Investors’ share by 3.1%. On the other hand, Alahlibank topped the list of gainers, by 24.3%; followed by Al Khaleej Takaful with 10.1%, Al Khaliji Commercial Bank by 8.6%, Qatar First Bank by 8.6% , then Investment Holding Group by 4.1%.

On the other hand, the total trading volume decreased by 9.8% to QR1260.4 million in this week, as well as the average daily trading to QR252.1 million. QNB’s share led the trading with a volume of QR431.3 million, followed by Qatar First Bank with QR109.9 million, Vodafone with QR76.2 million, and then Investment Holding with QR63.3 million. Qatari portfolios made net sales worth QR59.3 million, against net purchases of QR45.9 million by non-Qatari portfolios. Qatari individuals made net purchases worth QR13.4 million. Consequently, the QSE’s total capitalization fell by QR3 billion to reach QR472.7 billion. P/E ratio dropped to a multiple of 13.04, compared to last week’s 13.13.

Corporate News:

1.      Commercial Bank agreed to extend the grace period granted to “Tabarak Investment” Company for a period of 30 days until 24 January 2018, in respect of the potential acquisition of the share of Commercial Bank in United Arab Bank, listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

2.      Gulf Warehousing Company announced that it opened candidacy to elect new Board of Directors members for a three-year tenor (2018-2020). Nomination will be open from January 1st 2018, to January 15th 2018. The Company’s AGM on the other hand will be held on 05/02/2018.

3.      Barwa Real Estate Company announced the signing of a QR1,295 million contract to build a new laborers city, the construction of which is expected to be come to end in 12 months. Located along Salwa road, the project will include 3,170 residential units, retail outlets and mosques.

4.      General Insurance announced signing a marketing agreement with Ahlibank to promote the latter’s insurance products.

Economic Developments:

1.      Banks' consolidated balance sheet figures for November were recently released Data showed banks' assets increased by QR14 billion to QR1332.7 billion. Government and public sector deposits increased by QR9.6 billion to QR308 billion. On the other hand, the total loans of the government and public sector increased to reach QR491.2 billion, while the total private sector deposits increased to QR348.3 billion, and its loans surged to reach QR461 billion.

2.      The commodity trade balance achieved a surplus of QR12.8 billion, during the month of November, an increase of QR3.2 billion or 32.9% compared to the same month of the previous year, and a rise of QR4.5 billion, or 54.8% from October 2017.

3.     OPEC oil prices expected to have increased to the level of $63, compared to $62.16 a barrel in the previous week.

4.      Dow Jones index rose gained 55 points to hit the level of 24827 points until Thursday. U.S. dollar dropped to $1.20 per euro, and it fell to ¥112.66 per dollar. Gold rose by $25 to the level of $1297 per ounce.