Doha: The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) index closed the current week in the red zone, down by 0.72 percent to stand at 10,463 points, marking a weekly loss of approximately 2.89 percent, following six consecutive weekly gains of approximately 6.5 percent.
According to Qatar News Agency, investment manager at Qatar Securities Company (QS) Ramzi Qasmieh, said that from a technical standpoint, retesting current levels is beneficial for the index and may constitute a starting point for testing higher levels than those recorded last week at 10,818 points. He explained that profit-taking and establishing new price bases represent a driving force for the index, especially in light of news about the purchase of treasury shares for some companies on the one hand and the approaching announcement of mid-year results on the other.
Qasmieh pointed out that today’s session witnessed a jump in trading value to approximately QAR 1.44 billion, as a result of the implementation of the results of the Morgan Stanley MSCI review and the adjustment of the components of the 20-member index. The index had declined by approximately 1 percent since the beginning of the year, but has since risen by approximately 7 percent from its lowest levels recorded last April.
It is worth noting that QSE’s main index includes 20 companies distributed across six sectors, and the components of the index are adjusted periodically. Discussing the weekly sectoral performance, the investment manager noted that the real estate sector achieved gains of approximately 1.4 percent, due to a rise in Barwa shares in the final session of the week by over 5 percent. The telecommunications index declined by approximately 4.6 percent, but it remained the best-performing sector since the beginning of the year, with a rise of 17.9 percent.
He indicated that Mannai Corp shares were the highest gainers this week, rising 12.75 percent, followed by Investment Holding Group’s shares with 5 percent, while Qatar Islamic Bank shares were the biggest losers, falling 6.2 percent.